Old England : a pictorial museum of regal, ecclesiastical, baronial, municipal, and popular antiquities

Oictoria wS*

COLLECTION

OF VICTORIAN BOOKS

AT

BRIGHAM YOUNG

Victorian

Quarto

913.42

K743o

185-

vol. 1

UNIVERSITY

J RIG Ml .in . UHUI HE

Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2011 with funding from
Brigham Young University

http://www.archive.org/details/oldenglandpictor01knig

OLD ENGLAND:

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REGAL, ECCLESIASTICAL, MUNICIPAL, BARONIAL,

AND POPULAR ANTIQUITIES.

EDITED

By CHARLES KNIGHT.

IN TWO VOLUMES. -VOL. I.

LONDON:
JAMES SANGSTER AND CO.. PATERNOSTER ROW.

( iii ^

ILLUMINATED ENGRAVINGS OF OLD ENGLAND.

VOLUME I.

Some of these Engravings are described at the pages to which they are respectively assigned in the following list. Others are
not so described, although they are placed with reference to the general subject to which they belong. Where such description
is not found in the text, we here subjoin a more particular notice of the Engraving.

J. THE COEONATION CHAIR

19

2. PAINTED WINDOW OE SAXON AND NORMAN EARLS OF CHESTER

Brereton Hall, in Cheshire, was built in the reign of Elizabeth, by Sir William Brereton ; and it is said that the
queen herself laid the foundation-stone. The founder appears to have liberally used the beautiful art of staining glass
in the decoration of his mansion. In many of the windows were the various bearings of the principal Cheshire families,
some of which still remain. But the greatest object of curiosity in this mansion, an object, indeed, of historical interest,
was the painted window, of which we have given a faithful copy in the illuminated engraving. This window, we know not
for what cause, was some years ago removed to Aston Hall, in Warwickshire. It has had the advantage of being described
and engraved in Ormerod's " History of Cheshire ;" and a most beautiful and elaborate series of coloured fac-similes, the size
of the originals, was executed by Mr. William Fowler, and published in 1808. From these our engraving is copied. Two
of the figures represent Leofwine and Leofric, Saxon earls of Mercia. The other figures exhibit the seven Norman earls of
Chester. The first earl, Hugh, surnamed Lupus, came into England with the Conqueror, who gave to him and his heirs
the county of Chester, to hold as freely by him with the sword as he (William) held by the crown. He died in 1103.
Richard, the son of Hugh, was the second earl. He was drowned in returning from Normandy in 1120. Dying without
issue, he was succeeded by his cousin, Randolph de Meschines, the third earl, who died in 1129. The fourth earl,
Randolph, surnamed de Gernonijs, took part with the Empress Maud and her son Henry, and he, with Robert Earl of
Gloucester, made King Stephen prisoner at Lincoln in 1141. He died by poison in 1158. Hugh, surnamed Cyveliok,
from the place in Wales where he was born, was the fifth earl ; he died in 1180. Randolph, surnamed Blundeville, wa?
the sixth earl. He was a brave, and what was more unsual for a baron, a learned man, having compiled a treatise on the
Laws of the Realm. He lived in great honour and esteem in the reigns of Henry II., Richard I., John, and Henry III.
He fought in the Holy Land with Coeur-de-Lion, and was the founder of the abbey of Delacroix, in Staffordshire, and of
the Grey Friars at Coventry. He died in 1233, having held the earldom fifty-three years. Although married three times,
he had no issue ; but was succeeded by his nephew John, surnamed Le Scot. Upon his death without issue, in the
twenty-second of Henry III., 1238, the Fung " thought it not good to make a division of the earldom of Chester, it
enjoying such a regal prerogative ; therefore taking the same into his own hands, he gave unto the sisters of John Scot
other lands, and gave the county palatine of Chester to his eldest son." (Ormerod.) John le Scot was therefore the last
independent Earl of Chester. From that time the eldest sons of the sovereigns of England have been Earls of Chester from
the day of their birth.

In the painted window it will be observed that each figure is placed within an arch. Each arch in the original window
is seventeen inches in height, and about eight in width between the columns. The arches are struck from two centres, and
have a keystone, on which is represented a grotesque head under a basket of fruit. It will of course suggest itself to the
reader that this window, being in all probability executed in the time of Elizabeth, cannot be received as a perfectly faithful
representation even of the costume of these redoubted vice-kings of the county palatine. Upon this point Ormerod has the
following remarks : " The style of the architecture is of the era of Elizabeth, but an erroneous idea prevails as to the high
antiquity of these figures, and as to their having been the identical representations of the earls which formerly graced the
windows of Chester Abbey." To correct this idea the county historian refers to a rude drawing in the Harleian MS. 2151,
which shows the character of that ancient glass. But he adds, "It is, however, not unlikely that the figures may have
been copied from paintings, stained glass, or monkish illumiuations, of considerable antiquity ; though the paintings themselves
were most probably executed for the decoration of the newly-erected Hall of Brereton at the close of the sixteenth century."

94

8. KEEP OF ROCHESTER CASTLE

98

4. COURT-CUPBOARD IN WARWICK CASTLE ...

The furniture of the ancient halls and castles of England was for the most part peculiarly suited to the size and structure
of the apartments in which it was placed. Much of it was of oak, boldly and richly carved, in a manner exceedingly
appropriate to the beautiful Gothic style of the windows, the panelling of the walls, and the decorations of the mantel-
pieces and ceilings. The massy sideboard, or court-cupboard, as it is sometimes called, is one of those grand pieces of old
Gothic furniture, of which, besides the one at Warwick Castle represented in our coloured engraving, there are still many
specimens remaining in the old baronial apartments of England.

5. INTERIOR OF THE TEMPLE CHURCH ......

6. SCREEN AT THE WEST FRONT OF EXETER CATHEDRAL

7. CHOIR OF ELY" CATHEDRAL

8. DRYBURGH ABBEY

9. ENTRANCE TO THE CHAPEL OF EDWARD THE CONFESSOR

103

143

168

171
203

283

Vol. I.

IV

ILLUMINATED ENGRAVINGS.

10. MONUMENT TO SIR FRANCIS VERE

11. THE CHOIR, WESTMINSTER ABBEY

12. HENRY THE SEVENTH'S CHAPEL

13. CHAUCER

14. SHRINE OF HENRY THE FIFTH IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY

15. CHANCEL OF THE CHURCH OF STRATFORD-UPON-AVON .

The parish church of Stratford-upon-Avon is a large and handsome structure, of the usual cross-form, with a central
tower surmounted by a spire. The chancel, of which the coloured engraving exhibits a view from the south door, showing
Shakspere's monument on the north wall, is a fine specimen of late perpendicular architecture : the west end of the nave,
the north porch, the piers, arches, and clerestory, are also perpendicular, but of earlier date ; the tower, transept, and some
parts of the nave, are early English : the ancient arches of the tower have been strengthened by underbuilding them with
others of perpendicular character. Some of the windows have portions of good stained glass. Shakspere was buried on
the north side of the chancel : his monument on the north wall must have been erected previous to 1623, when his works
were first published ; for Leonard Digges, in the verses prefixed to that edition, thus addresses the departed poet : —

286

290
290
322
342
371

Shakespeare, at length thy pious fellows give
The world thy works : thy works by which outlive
Thy tomb thy name must ; when that stone is rent,
And time dissolves thy Stratford monument,
Here we alive shall view thee still. This book
When brass and marble fade, shall make thee look
Fresh to all ages.

The sculptor of the monument was Gerard Johnson. It consists of a bust of Shakspere with the body to the waist, under
an ornamented arch between two Corinthian columns which support an entablature, above which are the arms and crest of
Shakspere in bold relief, surmounted by a sculptured skull. Below the figure are the following Latin and English verses ;

Judicio Pylium, genio Socratein, arte Maronem,
Terra tegit, populus mceret, Olympus habet.

Stay, passenger, why goest thou by so fast?
Read, if thou canst, whom envious death hath placed
Within this monument — Shakspeare, with whom
Quick Nature died ; whose name doth deck this tomb
Far more than cost ; sith all that he hath writ
Leaves living Art but page to serve his wit.

Obiit Ano. Dni. 1616, setatis 53, die 23 Apr

16. CHANTRY, OR ORATORY OF THE BEAUCHAMP CHAPEL, WARWICK

The chantry, or oratory, represented in the illuminated engraving, is a detached building separated from the chapel by
an open screen. It is a beautiful work of art, and the groined ceiling is especially rich and elegant.

375

17. METHLEY HALL

Methley Hall, or Methley Park, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, seven miles south-east from Leeds, is the seat of
the Saviles, Earls of Mexborough, which family have held the manor for several centuries. The original manor-house was
built by Sir Robert Waterton, in the reign of Henry IV. ; but after the manor became the property of the Saviles, the old
house was pulled down, and the present magnificent mansion erected on its site by Sir John Savile, Baron of the Exchequer,
with additions by his son Sir Henry Savile, in a handsome and uniform style. Of this building only the hall and the back
part of the house remain : the far-famed gallery, with its armorial bearings in painted glass, no longer exists ; it has given
place to the present front pai-t of the mansion, which is of no great magnificence without, but contains some very fine
apartments, one of which, with its beautiful painted ceiling and pendant ornaments, its antique furniture, rich carving, and
lofty mullioned windows, is exhibited in our coloured engraving.

383

18. MORRIS-DANCE

The coloured engraving which is given as a title to the first volume of " Old England," is the representation of an ancient
window of stained glass, formerly in the house of George Tollett, Esq., of Betley, in Staffordshire, which has been conjectured
by Mr. Douce, from certain peculiarities of costume, to have been executed in the time of Edward IV. The six interior
lozenges, on which we have engraved the title of our work, are vacant in the original. The figures on the other lozenges
represent the performers of a Morris-Dance round a May-pole, from which are displayed a St. George's red cross and a
white pennon. Immediately below the May-pole is the character who manages the paste-board hobby horse, who, from the
crown which he wears, and the richness of his attire, appears to represent the King of May ; wnile, from the two daggers
stuck in his cheeks, he may be supposed to have been a juggler and the master of the dance. Beneath the lung of May
is Maid Marian, as the Queen of May, with the crown on her head and attired in a style of high fashion, her coif floating
behind, her hair unbound and streaming down her waist, and holding in her hand an emblematic flower. Margaret, eldest
daughter of Henry VII., when married to James, King of Scotland, appeared thus, wearing a crown and with her hair
hanging down her back. Of the other characters some are obvious enough, but others are conjectural. The left-hand
figure at the top is the court fool, with his cockscomb cap and his bauble. The first figure to the right is supposed to
represent a Spaniard, and the next a Morisco or Moor, both men of rank, in rich dresses, with the long outer sleeves
hanging loose like ribbons, a fashion once prevalent in England as well as on the Continent. Beneath the Morisco is the
instrumental performer, with his pipe and tabor ; below him the lover or paramour of Maid Marian ; and under him the
friar, in the Franciscan habit. The King of May is the supposed representative of Robin Hood ; the Queen of May, of
his favourite Marian ; and the friar, of his chaplain, Friar Tuck. Passing by Marian, we have the inferior fool furnished
with his bib; above him the representative of the clown or peasant; and next above, the franklin or gentleman, The
dresses are curiously appropriate to the characters.

Title

CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.

THE BRITISH PERIOD

THE ROMAN PERIOD

BOOK I.

BEFORE THE CONQUEST.
CHAPTER I.

CHAPTER II.

CHAPTER III.

THE ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD

I'ai.s

3

26

65

BOOK II.

THE PERIOD FROM THE NORMAN CONQUEST TO THE DEATH OF

KING JOHN. a.d. 1066—1216.

REGAL AND BARONIAL ANTIQUITIES

ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES

POPULAR ANTIQUITIES

CHAPTER I.
CHAPTER II.
CHAPTER III.

87

ISO

211

BOOK III.

THE PERIOD FROM THE ACCESSION OF HENRY III. TO THE END OF THE REIGN OF

RICHARD II. a.d. 1216—1399.

REGAL AND BARONIAL ANTIQUITIES

ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES

CHAPTER I.
CHAPTER II.
CHAPTER III.

POPULAR ANTIQUITIES

219

255

314

BOOK IV.

THE PERIOD FROM THE ACCESSION OF HENRY IV. TO THE END OF THE REIGN OF

RICHARD III. a.d. 1399—1485.

REGAL AND BARONIAL ANTIQUITIES
ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES .

CHAPTER I.
CHAPTER II.
CHAPTER III.

POPULAR ANTIQUITffiS

335

355

377

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O.ne of the most picturesque descriptions in tbe
most picturesque of poets, — that in ' The Faery
Queen ' of the old man who

" Things past could keep in memory,"
shows him sitting in a chamber which "seemed
ruinous and old," but whose walls were " right
firm and strong." Such are the Antiquities
of a great Nation. They may appear " worm-
eaten and full of canker-holes," but they are
teeming with life, and will be fresh and beauti-
ful as long as civilization endures. When the
knights who looked on the old man of Spenser
had perused his "antique Registers," and had
traced his wondrous legends up to the time of
the British kings who

" Entombed lie at Stonehenge by the heath,"
one of them bursts forth into this noble apo-
strophe : —

" Dear Country ! 0 how dearly dear
Ought thy remembrance and perpetual band
Be to thy foster-child, that from thy hand
Did common breath and nouriture receive !
How brutish is it not to understand
How much to her we owe, that all us gave ;
That gave unto us all whatever good we have !"
Such is the just effect upon every generous mind
of the study of the " ancient records " of our
native land. The richest treasures that we have
derived from a long line of ancestors are our
antiquities. They carry us back to dim periods
that have bequeathed to us no written explana-
tion of the origin and the uses of their inde-
structible monuments. Vast mounds, gigantic
temples, mystic towers, belong to ages not of bar-
barism, but of civilization different from our
own. These are succeeded by the remains of the
great Roman conquerors of the world, who be-
stowed upon Britain their refinements and their
learning. Our Anglo-Saxon Arts and Sciences
have left indelible traces, in written descrip-
tions and pictorial representations snatched
from the spoils of time ; and in some architec-
tural remains of early piety which have escaped
the ravages of the Dane. Gradually the in-
fluences of Christianity are spread over the land ;
and the great connecting links between the past
and the present rise up, in the glorious Ecclesias-
tical edifices that we are now at length learning
to look upon with love and admiration — to pre-
serve and to restore. But there are also monu-
ments scattered through the country of the
antagonist principles of brute force and military
dominion. The Feudal Times have left us their
impressive memorials, in Baronial Castles and
crumbling Fortresses, — in the Weapons and Ar-
mour of their haughty Chieftains. These are
succeeded by the venerable Palaces and Mansions
which belonged to the age of early constitutional
Government, when the Law allowed comfort to
be studied in conjunction with security. To
this age belong the monuments of Civic Power,

— the Halls of Guilds and Companies ; and, more
important still, the splendid seats of liberal Edus
cation, our Endowed Schools and Colleges. Amidst
all these instructive though silent chronicles ol
the past, in which England is richer than any
other country, have grown up the infinitely-
varied peculiarities of the middle classes, during
five centuries in which they have formed the
strength of the nation ; and these are preserved
in numberless evidences of their modes of life,
public and domestic. These things are surely of
the deepest interest even to millions who speak
the language of "old England," scattered
through every quarter of the habitable Globe.
The Antiquities of England are the Antiquities
of North America and of Australia, — of mighty
continents and fertile islands where the de-
scendants of the Anglo-Saxon have founded
" new nations." They are of especial interest to
every dweller in the father-land. These " rem-
nants of History which have casually escaped
the shipwreck of time " (so Bacon defines Anti-
quities) are amongst the best riches of the
freight of knowledge — not merely curiosities,
but of intrinsic value.

We propose to open to all ranks of the peo-
ple, at the cheapest rate, a complete view of
the REGAL, ECCLESIASTICAL, BARONIAL,
MUNICIPAL, and POPULAR ANTIQUITIES
OF ENGLAND, by tbe publication of the larg-
est collection of Engravings, with explanatory
letterpress, that has ever been devoted to this
important branch of general information. Our
work is addressed to the People; but the know-
ledge which it seeks to impart will be as scru-
pulously accurate as if it were exclusively in-
tended for the most critical antiquary. To be
full and correct it is not necessary to be tedious
and pedantic. That knowledge will be pre-
sented, for tbe most part, in a chronological
order ; and thus our work will be a Com-
panion and a Key to every English History. The
Engravings will embrace the most remarkable
of our Buildings from the earliest times— Druid-
ical Remains, Cathedrals, Abbeys, Churches,
Colleges, Castles, Civic Halls, Mansions: Sepul-
chral Monuments of our Princes and Nobles :
Portraits of British Worthies, and representa-
tions of the localities associated with their
names: Ancient Pictures and Illuminations of
Historical Events : the Great Seals and Arms of
the Monarchy : Coins and Medals : Autographs :
and, scattered amongst these authentic memo-
rials of the rulers of the land, and of those who
sat in high places, the fullest Pictorial indica-
tions of the Industry, the Arts, the Sports, the
Dresses, and the Daily Life of the People.

The forty Coloured Engravings which will
form a portion of the work will consist of Fac-
similes of Elalorate Architectural Drawings,
made expressly for this publication, and form-
ing in themselves a most interesting series of
Picturesque Antiquities.

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*#* Tbe Border represents the following objects: — at the top, Stonehenge, from the Salisbury side; on the left
hand— Roman Pharos, Dover ; Keep, Kenilworth Castle ; the Duke's House, Bradford ; Boar-hunt ; on the right
hand— Pevensey Castle; Bastion, and Tower of Cathedral, Canterbury; Caius Gate of Honour, Cambridge; Tomb
of Queen Elizabeth ; at the foot, South Terrace and Round Tower, ^Windsor CaBtle.

/

BOOK I.

CHAPTER L— THE BRITISH PERIOD.

ARUM Plain— the Salisbury Plain
of our own day — an elevated plat-
form of chalk, extending as far as
the eye can reach in broad downs
where man would seem to have no
abiding- place, presents a series of
objects as interesting in their degree
as the sands where the pyramids and
sphinxes of ancient Egypt have
stood for countless generations.
This plain would seem to be the
cradle of English civilization. The
works of man in the earliest ages
of tlie world may be buried beneath the hills or the rivers ; but we
can trace back the labours of those who have tenanted the same soil
as ourselves, to no more remote period than is indicated by the stone
circles, the barrows, the earth-works, of Salisbury Plain and its
immediate neighbourhood.

The great wonder of Salisbury Plain, — the most remarkable mo-
nument of antiquity in our island, if we take into account its com-
parative preservation as well as its grandeur — is Stonehenge. It
is situated about seven miles north of Salisbury. It may be most
conveniently approached from the little town of Amesbury. Pass-
ing by a noble Roman earth-work called the Camp of Vespasian, as
we ascend out of the valley of the Avon, we gain an uninterrupted
view of the undulating downs which surround us on every side.
The name of Plain conveys an inadequate notion of the character
of this singular district. The platform is not flat, as might be ima-
gined ; but ridge after ridge leads the eye onwards to the bolder hills
of the extreme distance, or the last ridge is lost in the low horizon.
The peculiar character of the scene is that of the most complete soli-
tude. It is possible that a shepherd boy may be descried watching
Ins flocks nibbling the short thymy grass with which the downs are
everywhere covered ; but, with the exception of a shed or a hovel,
there is no trace of human dwelling. This peculiarity arises from the
physical character of the district. It is not that man is not here, but
that his abodes are hidden in the little valleys. On each bank of the
Avon to the east of Stonehenge, villages and hamlets are found at
every mile ; and on the small branch of the Wyly to the west there
is a cluster of parishes, each with its church, in whose names, such as
Orcheston Maries, and Shrawston Virgo, we hail the tokens of in-
stitutions which left Stonehenge a ruin. We must not hastily con-
clude, therefore, that this great monument of antiquity was set up in
an unpeopled region ; and that, whatever might be its uses, it was
visited only by pilgrims from far-off places. But the aspect of
Stonehenge, as we have said, is that of entire solitude. The distant
view is somewhat disappointing to the raised expectation. The hull
of a large ship, motionless on a wide sea, with no object near by
which to measure its bulk, appears an insignificant thing : it is a
speck in the vastness by which it is surrounded. Approach that
ship, and the largeness of its parts leads us to estimate the grandeur
of the whole. So is it with Stonehense. The vast plain occupies
so much of the eye that even a large town set down upon it would
appear a hamlet. But as we approach the pile, the mind gradually
becomes impressed with its real character. It is now the Chorea
Gigantum — the Choir of Giants; and the tradition that Merlin the
Magician brought the stones from Ireland is felt to be a poetical
homage to the greatness of the work.

Keeping in view the ground-plan of Stonehenge in its present
state (Fig. 1), we will ask the reader to follow us while we describe
the appearance of the structure. Great blocks of stone, some of

which are standing and some prostrate, form the somewhat confused
circular mass in the centre of the plan. The outermost shadowed
circle represents an inner ditch, a vallum or bank, and an exterior
ditch, m, n. The height of the bank is 15 feet ; the diameter of the
space enclosed within the bank is 300 feet. The section / shows
their formation. To the north-east the ditch and bank run off into
an avenue, a section of which is shown at p. At the distance of
about 100 feet from the circular ditch is a large gray stone bent
forward, a, which, in the dim light of the evening, looks like a gi-
gantic human being in the attitude of supplication. The direct
course of the avenue is impeded by a stone, b. which has fallen in the
ditch. A similar single stone is found in corresponding monu-
ments. In the line of the avenue at the point marked c is a
supposed entrance to the first or outer circle of stones. At the
points d near the ditch are two large cavities in the ground. There
are two stones e, and two o, also near the ditch. It is conjectured by
some, that these formed part of a circle which has been almost to-
tally destroyed. The centre of the enclosed space is usually deno-
minated the temple. It consists of an outer circle of stones, seventeen
of which remain in their original position ; and thirteen to the north-
east, forming an uninterrupted segment of the circle, leave no doubt
as to the form of the edifice. The restored plan of Dr. Stukeley (Fig.
2) shows the original number of stones in this outer circle to have
been thirty ; those shadowed on the plan are still remaining. The up-
right stones of the outer circle are 14 feet in height, and upon the
tops of them has been carried throughout a continuous impost, as it
is technically called, of large flat stones of the same width. This
has not been a rude work, as we see in the structures called crom-
lechs, where a flat stone covers two or three uprights, without any
nice adjustment : but at Stonehenge sufficient remains to show that
the horizontal stones carefully fitted each other, so as to form each
an arc of the circle ; and that they were held firmly in their places
by a deep mortice at each end, fitting upon the tenon of the up-
rights. This careful employment of the builder's art constitutes
one of the remarkable peculiarities of Stonehenge. The blocks
themselves are carefully hewn. It is not necessary to add to our
wonder by adopting the common notion that the neighbouring
country produces no such material. The same fine-grained sand-
stone of which the greater number of the masses consists, is found
scattered upon the downs in the neighbourhood of Marlborough and
Avebury. The stones of the second circle are, however, of a dif-
ferent character; and so is what is called the altar-stone, marked/'
on the ground-plan. Of the inner circle, enclosing a diameter of
83 feet, which appears to have consisted of much smaller stones
without imposts, but about the same in number as the outer circle,
there are very few stones remaining. There is a single fallen stone
with two mortices g, winch has led to the belief that there was some
variation in the plan of the secoii'l circle, such as is indicated by the
letter a on the restored plan. "Within the second circle were five
distinct erections, each consisting of two very large stones with ar
impost, with three smaller stones in advance of each : these have
been called trilithons. That marked h in the ground-plan is the
largest stone in the edifice, being 21 feet 6 inches in height. The
two trilithons marked i are nearly perfect. The stones of the trili-
thon k are entire ; but it fell prostrate as recently as 1797. The ex-
ternal appearance which the whole work would have if restored, is
shown in the perspective elevation (Fig. 3). The internal arrange-
ment is exhibited in the section (Fig. 4). The present appearance
of the ruin from different points of view is shown in Figs. 5 and 6.

The description which we have thus given, brief as it is, may
appear somewhat tedious ; but it is necessary to understand the

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1.— Ground Plan of Stonehenge in its present state.

5.— Stonehenge.

6.— Stonehenge.

3.— Stonehenge.— Perspective Elevation restored.

7.— Druidical Circle at Darab.

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2.— Stonehenge.— Restored Plan.

4.— Stonehenge : section 1 to 2 (Restored Tlan, Fig. 2), 105 feet.

' 8— Druidical Stone.ln Persia.

10, Astronomical Instrument.

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17. — Sarum Plain.

1 3.— Two Druids. Bas-relief found at Autun. '

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12. — Gaulish Deity. Hesus.

9.— Pniid'ral Circle of Jersey.

6

OLD ENGLAND.

[Book 1

general, plan and some of the details of every great work of art, of
whatever age, ruinous or entire, before the mind can properly apply
itself to the associations which belong to it. In Stonehenge this
course is more especially necessary ; for however the imagination
may be impressed by the magnitude of those masses of stone which
still remain in their places, by the grandeur even of the fragments
confused or broken in their fall, by the consideration of the vast
labour required to bring such ponderous substances to this desolate
spot, and by surmise of the nature of the mechanical skill by which
they were lifted up and placed in order and proportion, it is not
till the entire plan is fully comprehended that we can properly
surrender ourselves to the contemplations which belong to this
remarkable scene. It is then, when we can figure to ourselves a
perfect structure, composed of such huge materials symmetrically
arranged, and possessing, therefore, that beauty which is the result
of symmetry, that we can satisfactorily look back through the dim
light of history or tradition to the object for which such a structure
was destined. The belief now appears tolerably settled that Stone-
henge was a temple of the Druids. It differs, however, from all
other Druidical remains, in the circumstance that greater mecha-
nical art was employed in its construction, especially in the super-
incumbent stones of the outer circle and of the trilithons, from
which it is supposed to derive its name ; stem being the Saxon for
a stone, and heng to hang or support. From this circumstance it is
maintained that Stonehenge is of the very latest ages of Druidism ;
and that the Druids that wholly belonged to the ante-historic period
followed the example of those who observed the command of the
law : " If thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build
it of hewn stone : for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast
polluted it." (Exodus, chap, xx.) Regarding Stonehenge as a work
of masonry and architectural proportions, Inigo Jones came to the
conclusion that it was a Roman Temple of the Tuscan order. This
was an architect's dream. Antiquaries, with less of taste and fancy
that Inigo Jones, have had their dreams also about Stonehenge,
almost as wild as the legend of Merlin flying away with the stones
from the Curragh of Kildare. Some attribute its erection to the
Britons after the invasion of the Romans. Some bring it down to
as recent a period as that of the usurping Danes. Others again
carry it back to the early days of the Phoenicians. The first
notice of Stonehenge is found in the writings of Nennius, who lived
in the ninth century of the Christian era. He says that at the spot
where Stonehenge stands a conference was held between Hengist
and Vortigern, at which Hengist treacherously murdered four
hundred and sixty British nobles, and that their mourning sur-
vivors erected the temple to commemorate the fatal event. Mr. Da-
vies, a modern writer upon Celtic antiquities, holds that Stonehenge
was the place of this conference between the British and Saxon
princes, on account of its venerable antiquity and peculiar sanctity.
There is a passage in Diodorus Siculus, quoted from Hecatams, which
describes a round temple in Britain dedicated to Apollo ; and this
Mr. Davies concludes to have been Stonehenge. By another
writer, Dr. Smith, Stonehenge is maintained to have been " the
grand orrery of the Druids," representing, by combinations of its
stones, the ancient solar year, the lunar month, the twelve signs of
the zodiac, and the seven planets. Lastly, Stonehenge has been
pronounced to be a temple of Budha, the Druids being held to be a
race of emigrated Indian philosophers.

Startling as this last assertion may appear to be, a variety of facts
irresistibly lead to the conclusion that the circles, the stones of
memorial, the cromlechs, and other monuments of the highest an-
tiquity in these islands, have a distinct resemblance to other monu-
ments of the same character scattered over Asia and Europe, and
even found in the New World, which appear to have had a common
origin. In Great Britain and Ireland, in Jersey and Guernsey, in
France, in Germany in Denmark and Sweden, such monuments
are found extensively dispersed. They are found also, though more
rarely, in the Netherlands, Portugal, and Malta ; in Gozo and
Phoenicia. But their presence is also unquestionable in Malabar,
in India, in Palestine, in Persia. Figures 7 and 8 represent a
Druidical circle, and a single upright stone standing alone near the
circle, which are described by Sir William Ouseley as seen by
him at Darab, in the province of Fars, in Persia. Our engravings
are copied from those in Sir William Ouseley's book. We have
placed them upon the same page with the representations of Stone-
henge. If we had obliterated the Oriental figures, a superficial
observation might easily receive them as representations of Stone-
henge from another point of view. The circle of stones at Darab
is surrounded by a wide and deep ditch and a high bank of earth ;
there is a central stone, and a single upright stone at some distance
from the main group. The resemblance of the circle at Darab to

the general arrangement of Stonehenge, and other similar monu-
ments of Europe, led Sir William Ouseley to the natural conclu
sion that a "British Antiquary might be almost authorised to pro
nounce it Druidical, according to the general application of the wor.\
among us." At Darab there is a peculiarity which is not found at
Stonehenge, at least in its existing state. Under several of the
stones there are recesses, or small caverns. In this particular, and
in the general rudeness of its construction, the circle of Darab
resembles the Druidical circle of Jersey (9), although the circle
there is very much smaller, and the stones of very inconsiderable
dimensions, — a copy in miniature of such vast works as those of
Stonehenge and Avebury. This singular monument, which was
found buried under the earth, was removed some fifty years ago by
General Conway, to his seat near Henley, the stones being placed
in his garden according to the original plan.

When we open the great store-house not only of divine truth but
of authentic history, we find the clearest record that circles of stone
were set up for sacred and solemn purposes. The stones which
were taken by Joshua out of the bed of the Jordan, and set up in
Gilgal, supply the most remarkable example. The name Gilgal
itself signifies a circle. Gilgal subsequently became a place not only
of sacred observances, but for the more solemn acts of secular
government. It was long a controversy, idle enough as such
controversies generally are, whether Stonehenge was appropriated
to religious or to civil purposes. If it is to be regarded as a
Druidical monument, the discussion is altogether needless; for the"
Druids were, at one and the same time, the ministers of religion,
the legislators, the judges, amongst the people. The account which
Julius Caesar gives of the Druids of Gaul, marked as it is by his
usual clearness and sagacity, may be received without hesitation
as a description of the Druids of Britain : for he says, " the system
of Druidism is thought to have been formed in Britain, and from
thence carried over into Gaul ; and now those who wish to be more
accurately versed in it for the most part go thither (i. e. to Britain)
in order to become acquainted with it." Nothing can be more ex-
plicit than his account of the mixed office of the Druids : " They
are the ministers of sacred things ; they have the charge of sacri-
fices, both public and private ; they give directions for the ordi-
nances of religious worship (religiones interpretanlur) . A great
number of young men resort to them for the purpose of instruction
in their system, and they are held in the highest reverence. For it
is they who determine most disputes, whether of the affairs of the
state or of individuals: and if any crime has been committed, if a
man has been slain, if there is a contest concerning an inheritance
or the boundaries of their lands, it is the Druids who settle the
matter: they fix rewards and punishments: if any one, whether in
an individual or public capacity, refuses to abide by their sentence
they forbid him to come to the sacrifices. This punishment is amono-
them very severe; those on whom this interdict is laid are ac-
counted among the unholy and accursed ; all fly from them, and
shun their approach and their conversation, lest they should be in-
jured by their very touch ; they are placed out of the pale of the
law, and excluded from all offices of honour." After noticing that
a chief Druid, whose office is for life, presides over the rest, Csesar
mentions a remarkable circumstance which at once accounts for the
selection of such a spot as Sarum Plain, for the erection of a great
national monument, a temple, and a seat of justice : — " These
Druids hold a meeting at a certain time of the year in a consecrated
spot in the country of the Carnutes (people in the neighbourhood
of Chartres), which country is considered to be in the centre of all
Gaul. Hither assemble all from every part who have a litigation,
and submit themselves to their determination and sentence." At
Stonehenge, then, we may place the seat of such an assize. There
were roads leading direct over the plain to the great British towns
of Winchester and Silchester. Across the plain, at a distance not
exceeding twenty miles, was the great temple and Druidical settle-
ment of Avebury. The town and hill-fort of Sarum was close at
hand (23). Over the dry chalky downs, intersected by a few streams
easily forded, might pilgrims resort from all the surrounding
country. The seat of justice which was also the seat of the highest
religious solemnity, would necessarily be rendered as magnificent
as a rude art could accomplish. Stonehenge might be of a later
period than Avebury, with its mighty circles and long avenues of
unhewn pillars ; but it might also be of the same period, — the one
distinguished by its vastness, the other by its beauty of proportion.
The justice executed in that judgment-seat was, according to
ancient testimony, bloody and terrible. The religious rites were
debased into the fearful sacrifices of a cruel idolatry. But it is
impossible not to feel that at the bottom of these superstitions there
was a deep reverence for what was high and spiritual : that not onh

Chap. I.j

OLD ENGLAND.

were the Druids the instructors of youth, but the preservers and
disseminators of science, the proclaitners of an existence beyond this
finite and material world— idolaters, but nevertheless teaching some-
thin- nobler than what belongs to the mere senses, in the midst of
their" idolatry. We give entire what Caesar says of the religious
system of this remarkable body of men : —

" " It is especially the object of the Druids to inculcate this — that
souls do not perish, but after death pass into other bodies : and they
consider that by this belief more than anything else men may be
led to cast away the fear of death, and to become courageous.
They discuss, moreover, many points concerning the heavenly bodies
and their motion, the extent of the universe and the world, the na-
ture of things, the influence and ability of the immortal gods; and
they instruct the youth in these things.

"The whole nation of the Gauls is much addicted to religious
observances, and, on that account, those who are attacked by any of
the more serious diseases, and those who are involved in the dangers
of warfare, either offer human sacrifices or make a vow that they
will offer them ; and they employ the Druids to officiate at these
sacrifices ; for they consider that the favour of the immortal gods
cannot be conciliated unless the life of one man be offered up for
that of another : they have also sacrifices of the same kind appointed
on behalf of the state. Some have images of enormous size, the
limbs of which they make of wicker-work, and fill with living men,
and setting them on fire, the men are destroyed by the flames.
They consider that the torture of those who have been taken in the
commission of theft or open robbery, or in any crime, is more agree-
able to the immortal gods ; but when there is not a sufficient num-
ber of criminals, they scruple not to inflict this torture on the inno-
cent.

" The chief deity whom they worship is Mercury ; of him they
have many images, and they consider him to be the inventor of all
arts, their guide in all their journeys, and that he has the greatest
influence in the pursuit of wealth and the affairs of commerce.
Next to him they worship Apollo and Mars, and Jupiter and Mi-
nerva; and nearly resemble other nations in their views respecting
these, as that Apollo wards off diseases, that Minerva communicates
the rudiments of manufactures and manual arts, that Jupiter is the
ruler of the celestials, that Mars is the god of war. To Mars, when
they have determined to engage in a pitched battle, they commonly
devote whatever spoil they may take in the war. After the contest,
they slay all living creatures that are found among the spoil ; the
other things they gather into one spot. In many states, heaps raised
of these things in consecrated places may be seen : nor does it often
happen that any one is so unscrupulous as to conceal at home any
part of the spoil, or take it away when deposited : a very heavy
punishment with torture is denounced against that crime.

" All the Gauls declare that they are descended from Father Dis
(or Pluto), and this, they say, has been handed down by the Druids :
for this reason, they distinguish all spaces of time not by the number
of days, but of nights ; they so regulate their birth-days, and the
beginning of the months and years, that the days shall come after
the night."*

The precise description which Caesar has thus left us of the re-
ligion of the Druids — a religion which, whatever doubts may have
been thrown upon the subject, would appear to have been the pre-
vailing religion of ancient Britain, from the material monuments
which are spread through the country, and from the more durable
records of popular superstitions — is different in some particulars
which have been supplied to us by other writers. According to
Caesar, the Druids taught that the soul of* man did not perish with
his perishable body, but passed into other bodies. But the language
of other writers, Mela, Diodorus Siculus, and Ammianus Marcel-
linus, would seem to imply that the Druids held the doctrine of the
immortality of the soul as resting upon a nobler principle than that
described by Caesar. They believed, according to the express state-
ment of Ammianus Marcellinus, that the future existence of the
spirit was in another world. The substance of their religious system,
according to Diogenes Laertius, was comprised in their three pre-
cepts—to worship the gods, to do no evil, and to act with courage.
It is held by some that they had a secret doctrine for the initiated,
whilst their ritual observances were addressed to the grosser senses
of the multitude ; and that this doctrine was the belief in one God.
Their veneration for groves and of oak and for sacred fountains was
an expression of that natural worship which sees the source of all
good in the beautiful forms with which the earth is clothed. The
sanctity of the mistletoe, the watch-fires of spring and summer and
autumn, traces of which observances still remain amongst us were

* Ciesar dc Bell. Gall., lib. vi. Our translation is that of the article "Bri-
t,mnia," in the Penny Cyclopaedia.

tributes to the bounty of the All-giver, who alone could make the
growth, the ripening, and the gathering of the fruits of the earth
propitious. The sun and the moon regulated their festivals, and
there is little doubt formed part of their outward worship. An as-
tronomical instrument found in Ireland (Fig. 10) is held to represent
the moon's orbit and the phases of the planets. They worshipped,
too, according to Caesar, the divinities of Greece and Rome, such
as Mars and Apollo : but Caesar does not give us their native names.
He probably found ascribed to these British gods like attributes
of wisdom and of power as those of Rome, and so gave them
Roman names. Under the church of Notre Dame, at Paris, were
found in the last century two bas-reliefs of Celtic deities, the one
Cernunnos (Fig. 11), the other Hesus (Fig. 12), coresponding to the
Roman Mars. Other writers confirm Caesar's account of their human
sacrifices. This is the most revolting part of the Druidical super-
stition. The shuddering with which those who live under a pure
revelation must regard such fearful corruptions of the principle of
devotion, which in some form or other seems an essential part of
the constitution of the human faculties, produced this description of
Stonehenge from the pen of a laborious and pious antiquary, Mr.
King: — " Although my mind was previously filled with determined
aversion, and a degree of horror, on reflecting upon the abomina-
tions of which this spot must have been the scene, and to which it
even gave occasion, in the later periods of Druidism, yet it was im-
possible not to be struck, in the still of the evening, whilst the
moon's pale light illumined all, with a reverential awe, at the
solemn appearance produced by the different shades of this immense
group of astonishing masses of rock, artificially placed, impending
over head with threatening aspect, bewildering the mind with the
almost inextricable confusion of their relative situations with respect
to each other, and from their rudeness, as well as from their prodigious
bulk, conveying at one glance all the ideas of stupendous greatness
that could be well assembled together." And yet the " determined
aversion and degree of horror" thus justly felt, and strongly ex-
pressed, might be mitigated by the consideration that in nations
wholly barbarous the slaughter of prisoners of war is indiscriminate,
but that the victim of the sacrifice is the preserver of the mass.
If the victims once slain on the Druidical altars were culprits sacri-
ficed to offended justice, the blood-stained stone of the sacred circle
might find a barbarous parallel in the scaffold and the gibbet of
modern times. Even such fearful rites, if connected with some-
thing nobler than the mere vengeance of man upon his fellows, are
an advance in civilization, and they are not wholly inconsistent with
that rude cultivation of our spiritual being which existed under
the glimmerings of natural impulses, before the clear light of heaven
descended upon the earth.

We stand without the bank of Stonehenge, and we look upon the
surrounding plains, a prospect wide as the sea. We walk along the
avenue previously noticed which extends for the third of a mlie on
the north-east. It then divides into two branches, the northward
of which leads to what is called the cursus. This is a flat tract of
land, bounded on each side by banks and ditches. It is more than
a mile and five furlongs in length. Antiquaries have not settled
whether it was a more recent Roman work or an appendage to the
Druidical Stonehenge. At either extremity of the cursus are found
what are called barrows. The southern branch of the avenue runs
between two rows of barrows. On every side of Stonehenge we
are surrounded with barrows. Wherever we cast our eyes we see
these grassy mounds lifting up their heads in various forms (Fig.
18). Some are of the shape of bowls, and some of bells ; some are
oval, others nearly triangular ; some present a broad but slight ele-
vation of a circular form, surrounded by a bank and a ditch (Figs.
19, 20, 21, and 22). The form of others is so feebly marked that
they can be scarcely traced, except by the ^! adows which they cast
in the morning and evening sun. This is the great burial-place of
generations long passed away. Spenser tells us, according to the
old legends, that a long line of British kings here lie entombed.
Milton, in his History, relates their story, " Be it for nothing else
but in favour of our English poets and rhetoricians." The poets had
used these legends before Milton collected them. If the old kings
were here buried, though their very existence be now treated as a
fable, they have wondrous monuments which have literally survived
those of brass and stone. Unquestionably there were distinctions
of rank and of sex amongst those who were here entombed. Their
graves have been unmolested by the various spoilers who have ra-
vaged the land ; and, what is more important to their preservation,
the plough has spared them, in these chalky downs which rarely
repay the labours of cultivation. But the antiquary has broken
into them with his spade and his mattock, and he has established their
sepulchral character, and the peculiarities of their sepulture. Sir

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18.— Long Barrow. 6c, Druid Barrows, d, Bell-shaped Barrow, e, Conical Barrow, f, Twin Barrow-

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23. — Remains of Old Sarum.

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Flint Arrow-Heads.

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Celts.

5.

Weapons. J

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Pin. /

7.

Arrow-Head?. lof Bronze.

8.

Dirk or Knife. 1

9.

Spear-Head."

10.

Lance-Head.

11.

Brass Knife in Sheath,
stag's-horn handle.

set in

12.

Flint Spear-Head.

13.

Ivory Tweezers.

14.

Ivory Bodkin.

15.

Amber Ornament.

16. Necklace of Shells.

17. Beads of Glass.

18. Ivory Ornament.

19. Nippers

20. Stone for Sling.

21. Stone to sharpen Knife.

22. Ring Amulet.

23. Breastplate of Blue Slate.

24. Incense Cup.

25. Ditto.

26. Ditto.

27. Whetstone.
28 to 32. Urns.

33 to 37. Drinking-Cnps.

•*S!H&;

25.— General View of Abury— restored.

26.— Abury. Tlan and Section.

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27. — Abury. Extended Plan.

30.— Ornaments and Tatterns of the Ancient Britons.

29.-- Arch-Druid in his full Judicial CostvrrnS

No. 2.

28.— Abury. Bird's-eye view from the North,

31.— British Weapons of bronze, in their earliest and improved state,

9

■

10

OLD ENGLAND.

[Book IL

Richard Celt Hoare, who

devoted a life to the examination of the
antiquities of Wiltshire, justly says : " We must not consider every
barrow as a mere tumulus, or mound, loosely or fortuitously thrown
up : but must rather view them as works of evident design, and ex-
ecuted with the greatest symmetry and precision." These remark-
able monuments contain not only the bones and the ashes of the
dead, but various articles of utility and ornament, domestic utensils,
weapons of war, decorations of the person, perhaps insignia of
honour (Figs. 13 and 14), the things which contributed to comfort,
to security, and to the graces of life (Fig. 24). Mela says that the
Druidical belief in a future state led the people to bury with the
dead things useful to the living. The contents of these barrows
indicate different stages of the arts. In some there are spear-heads
and arrow-heads of flint and bone (Fig. 16); in others brass and
iron are employed for the same" weapons. In some the earthen ves-
sels are rudely fashioned, and appear to have been dried in the sun ;
in others they are of regular form, as if produced by the lathe, and
are baked and ornamented. But whatever be the difference in the
comparative antiquity of these barrows, it is a remarkable fact that
in those of South Wiltshire, which have nearly all been explored,
nothing whatever has been discovered which could indicate that this
mode of sepulture was practised after the Roman dominion had
commenced in Britain. The coins of the conquerors of the world
are not here to be looked for.

Towards the northern extremity of that extensive range of chalky
downs which, whether called Salisbury Plain or Marlborough Downs,
present the same geological character, we find the seat of one of
the most remarkable monuments of the ancient inhabitants of this
island. About a mile to the north of the great road from Bath to
London is the village of Abury or Avebury. A traveller unac-
quainted with the history of this little village, lying in its peaceful
obscurity on the banks of the Kennet, out of the common way of
traffic mio-ht walk through it almost without noticing the vast
blocks of stone which lie scattered at very irregular distances
amongst its ploughed fields, or stand, as if defying time and man,
close by the farmer's homestead. Year after year has their number
been diminished ; so that if we had only now begun to judge of the
whole from its remaining parts, the great temple of Abury might
have appeared to the incredulous eye little more than the imaginative
creation of confiding antiquarianism. Upon the neighbouring downs
there are large blocks of stone lying here and there, and seeming
perhaps as symmetrically arranged as the remains of Abury. The
shepherds call them the Grey Wethers, a name which implies that
they have an affinity to natural objects. Man, indeed, has not
disturbed their rest since they were thrown on these downs like
pebbles cast by the Titans. The land upon which the Grey Wethers
lie is too barren for culture ; but the soil of Abury rendered the
o-reat Druidical temple an incumbrance upon its fertility. For two
centuries we can trace the course of its destruction. Gibson de-
scribes it as " a monument more considerable in itself than known
to the world. For a village of the same name being built within
the circumference of it, and, by the way, out of its stones too, what
by gardens, orchards, enclosures, and the like, the prospect is so
interrupted that it is very hard to discover the form of it." The
good old gossip Aubrey saw the place in 1648, and Charles the
Second desired him to write an account of it in 1663. The King
himself went to see it in that year ; and perhaps we can have no
better evidence than this of the remarkable character of the struc-
ture ; for Charles, we imagine, would be as sceptical as Edie
Ochiltree* about the existence of circles, and avenues, and altar-
stones, and cromlechs, whose plan could be indicated only by a few
crumbling sand-stones. Gibson, continuing his very brief notice
of Abury, says, " It is environed by an extraordinary vallum, or
rampire, as great and as high as that at Winchester ; and within it
is a graff (ditch or moat) of a depth and breadth proportionable.
.... The graff hath been surrounded all along the edge of it
with large stones pitched on end, most of which are now taken away ;
but some marks remaining give liberty for a conjecture, that they
stood quite round." In Aubrey's time, sixty-three stones, which he
describes, were standing within the entrenched exclosure. Dr.
Stukeley made a minute examination of Abury, from 1720 to 1724,
His work, ' Abury, a Temple of the British Druids,' was published
in 1743. King says, " In Dr. Stukeley's time, when the destruction
of the whole for the purpose of building was going on so rapidly,
still forty-four of the stones of the great outward circle were left,
and many of the pillars of the great avenue : and a great cromlech
was in being, the upper stone of which he himself saw broken and
carried away, the fragments of it alone making no less than twenty
* "Praetorian here, Praetorian there, I mind the lagging o't." — Scott's
Antiquary.

good cartloads." In 1812, according to Sir Richard Hoare,on]y
seventeen of the stones remained within the great enclosure. Their
number has been since still further reduced. The barbarism of the
Turks, who burned the marble monuments of Greece for lime, may
find a parallel in the stone-breakers of Abury, and in many other
stone-breakers and stone-defacers, — the beautifiers as bad as the
destroyers, — in our own country, and almost in our own day.

Dr. Stukeley, who brought to the study of these early antiquities
something similar to the genius by which a naturalist can discover
the structure of a fossil animal by the formation of a tooth or a
claw, has given us some very complete plans for the restoration of
Abury ; and although he has been sometimes held to be enthusiastic
and credulous, there is such sound foundation for his conjectures in
this particular case, that antiquarians are pretty well agreed to
speak of Abury, as it was, upon his authority. His admiration of
this monument is, as we might expect, somewhat exaggerated.
Aubrey said, " These antiquities are so exceedingly old that no
books do reach them ; I can affirm that I have brought this temple
from utter darkness into a thin mist." But Stukeley endeavours to
bring the original structure of the building into the clear light of
day ; and to describe it as perspicuously as if the ground-plans of
the Arch-Druid architect were lying before lam. We may smile
at this ; but we must not forget that the elements of such an erec-
tion are very simple. No one doubts about the great circular val-
lum and ditch which surround the principal work. It was there
when Aubrey wrote ; it remains to this day, however broken and
obscured. The plan (Fig. 20) exhibits this bank e with the ditch/*:
immediately within the ditch was a circle of stones, dotted on the
plan. This circle is stated to have been composed of a hundred
stones, many from fifteen to seventeen feet in height, but some
much smaller, and others considerably higher, of vast breadth, in
some cases equal to the height. The distance between each stone
was about twenty-seven feet. The circle of stones was about
thirteen hundred feet in diameter. The inner slope of the bank
measured eighty feet. Its circumference at the top is stated by Sir
Richard Hoare to be four thousand four hundred and forty-two
feet. The area thus enclosed exceeds twenty-eight acres. Half-
way up the bank was a sort of terrace walk of great breadth.
Dimensions such as these at once impress us with notions of vastness
and magnificence. But they approach to sublimity when we imagine
a mighty population standing upon this immense circular terrace, and
looking with awe and reverence upon the religious and judicial rites
that were performed within the area. The Roman amphitheatres
are petty things compared with the enormous circle of Abury.
Looking over the hundred columns, the spectators would see, within,
two other circular temples, marked c and d ; of the more northerly
of these double circles some stones of immense size are still stand-
ing. The great central stone of c, more than twenty feet high, was
standing in 1713. In 1720 enough remained decidedly to show
their original formation. The general view (Fig. 25) is a restoration
formed upon the plan (Fig. 26). Upon that plan there are two open-
ings through the bank and ditch, a and b. These are connected with
a peculiarity of Abury, such as is found in no other monument, of
those called Celtic, although near Penrith a long avenue of granite
stones formerly existed. At these entrances two lines of upright
stones branched off, each extending for more than a mile. These
avenues are exhibited in the plan (Fig. 27). That running to the
south and south-east d, from the great temple a, terminated at e, in
an elliptical range of upright stones. It consisted, according to
Stukeley, of two hundred stones. The oval thus terminating this
avenue was placed on a hill called the Hakpen, or Overton Hill.
Crossing this is an old British track-way h. Barrows, dotted on
the plan, are scattered all around. The western avenue c, extending
nearly a mile and a half towards Beckhampton, consisted also of
about two hundred stones, terminating in a single stone. It has
been held that these avenues, running in curved lines, are emblema-
tic of the serpent-worship, one of the most primitive and widely ex-
tended superstitions of the human race. Conjoined with this wor-
ship was the worship of the sun, according to those who hold that
the whole construction of Abury was emblematic of the idolatry
of primitive Druidism. The high ground to the south of Abury
within the avenues is indicated upon the plan (Fig. 27.) Upon that
plan is also marked f, a most remarkable monument of the British
period, Silbury Hill, of which Sir R. Hoare says, " There can be
no doubt it was one of the component parts of the grand temple at
Abury, not a sepulchral mound raised over the bones and ashes of a
king or arch-druid. Its situation, opposite to the temple, and nearly
in the centre between the two avenues, seems in some degree to war-
rant this supposition." The Roman road k from Bath to London
passes close under Silbury Hill, diverging from the usual straight line

Chap. I.]

OLD ENGLAND

11

instead of being cut through this colossal mound. The bird's-eye
view (Fig. 28) exhibits the restoration of Abury and its neigh-
bourhood somewhat more clearly. 1 is the circumvallated bank, 2
and 3 the inner temples, 4 the river Kennet, 5 and 6 the avenues,
7 Silbury Hill, 8 a large barrow, 9 a cromlech.

Silbury Hill (Fig. 32) is the largest artificial mound in Europe.
It is not so large as the mound of Alyattes in Asia Minor, which
Herodotus has described and a modern traveller has ridden round.
It is of greater dimensions than the second pyramid of Egypt.
Stukeley is too ardent in the contemplation of this wonder of his
own land when he says, " I have no scruple to affirm it is the most
magnificent mausoleum in the world, without excepting the Egyptian
pyramids." But an artificial hill which covers five acres and
thirty-four perches ; which at the circumference of the base mea-
sures two thousand and twenty-seven feet ; whose diameter at top
is one hundred and twenty feet, its sloping height three hundred
and sixteen feet, and its perpendicular height one hundred and
seven feet, is indeed a stupendous monument of human labour, of
which the world can show very few such examples. There can
be no doubt whatever that the hill is entirely artificial. The
great, earth-works of a modern railway are the results of labour,
assisted by science and stimulated by capital, employing itself for
profit ; but Silbury Hill in all likelihood was a gigantic effort of
what has been called hero-worship, a labour for no direct or imme-
diate utility, but to preserve the memory of some ruler, or lawgiver,
or warrior, or priest. Multitudes lent their aid in the formation ;
and shouted or wept around it, when it had settled down into solidity
under the dews and winds, and its slopes were covered with ever-
springing grass. If it were a component part of the temple at
Abury, it is still to be regarded, even more than the gathering
together of the stone circles and avenues of that temple, as the
work of great masses of the people labouring for some elevating
and heart-stirring purpose. Their worship might be blind, cruel,
guided by crafty men who governed them by terror or by delusion.
But these enduring monuments show the existence of some great
and powerful impulses which led the people to achieve mighty
things. There was a higher principle at work amongst them, how-
ever abused and perverted, than that of individual selfishness. The
social principle was built upon some sort of reverence, whether of
man, or of beings held to preside over the destinies of man.

It requires no antiquarian knowledge to satisfy the observer of
the great remains of Stonehenge and Abury, that they are works
of art, in the strict sense of the word — originating in design, having
proportion of parts, adapted to the institutions of the period to
which they belonged, calculated to affect with awe and wonder the
imagination of the people that assembled around them. But there
are many remarkable groups of immense stones, and single stones,
in various parts of England, which, however artificial they may
appear, are probably wholly or in part natural productions. Some
of these objects have involved great differences of opinion. For '
instance, the Rock of Carnbre, or Karn-bre, near Truro, is held by I
Borlase, in his ' Antiquities of Cornwall,' to be strewed all over \
with Druidical remains. He says, " In this hill of Karn-bre, we
find rock-basins, circles, stones erect, remains of cromlechs, cairns,
a grove of oaks, a cave, and an inclosure, not of military, but reli-
gious, structure ; and these are evidences sufficient of its having
been a place of Druid worship ; of which it may be some confirma-
tion, that the town, about half a mile across the brook, which runs
at the bottom of this hill, was anciently called Red-drew, or, more
rightly, Ryd-drew, i. e., the Druid's Ford, or crossing of the brook."

The little castle at the top of the hill is called by Borlase a British
fortress (Fig. 33) ; and in this point some antiquaries are inclined to
agree with him. But they for the most part hold that his notions
of circles, and stones erect, and cromlechs, are altogether visionary;
and that the remarkable appearances of these rocks are produced
by the unassisted operations of nature. It is certain, however, that
about a century ago an immense number of gold coins were dis-
covered on this hill, -which bear no traces of Roman art ; and
which, having the forms of something like a horse and a wheel
impressed upon them, Borlase thinks allude to the chariot-fighting
of the British, being coined before the invasion of Csesar. Davies
in his 'Mythology and Rites of the British Druids,' considers them
to be Druidical coins ; the supposed horse being a mystical com-
bination of a bird, a mare, and a ship, — " a symbol of Keel or
Ceridwen, the Arkite goddess, or Ceres of the Britons." It is
unnecessary for us to pursue these dark and unsatisfactory inquiries.
We mention them to point out how full of doubt and difficulty is
the whole subject of the superstitions of our British ancestors. But
wherever we can find distinct traces of their work, we discover
something far above the conceptions of mere barbarians — great

monuments originating in the direction of some master minds, and
adapted by them to the habits and the feelings of the body of the
people. The Druidical circles, as we have shown, are not con-
fined to England or Scotland. On the opposite shores of Brittany
the great remains of Carnac exhibit a structure of far greater
extent even than Abury. " Carnac is infinitely more extensive
than Stonehenge, but of ruder formation ; the stones are much
broken, fallen down, and displaced ; they consist of eleven rows of
unwrought pieces of rock or stone, merely set up on end in the
earth, without any pieces crossing them at top. These stones are
of great thickness, but not exceeding nine or twelve feet in height ;
there may be some few fifteen feet. The rows are placed from
fifteen to eighteen paces from each other, extending in length (taking
rather a semicircular direction) above half a mile, on unequal
ground, and towards one end upon a hilly site. When the length
of these rows is considered, there must have been nearly three hun-
dred stones in each, and there are eleven rows : this will give you
some idea of the immensity of the work, and the labour such a con-
struction required. It is said that there are above four thousand
stones now remaining." (Mrs. Stothard's ' Tour in Normandy
and Brittany.') It is easy to understand how the same religion
prevailing in neighbouring countries might produce monuments of
a similar character ; but we find the same in the far East, in lands
separated from ours by pathless deserts and wide seas. So it is
with those remarkable structures, the Round Towers of Ireland ;
which were considered ancient even in the twelfth century. Many
of these towers are still perfect. They are varied in their con-
struction, and their height is very different ; but they all agree in
their general external appearance, tapering from the base to a coni-
cal cap or roof, which forms the summit. They are almost in-
variably found close to an ancient Christian church ; which is
accounted for by the fact that the sites of pagan worship were
usually chosen by the early missionaries for rearing a holier struc-
ture, which should reclaim the people from their superstitious
reverence, to found that reverence upon the truths which were
purifying the lands of classic paganism. The Round Tower ot
Donoughmore (Fig. 35) is one of these singular monuments. " The
only structures that have been anywhere found similar to the Irish
Round Towers are in certain countries of the remote East, and es-
pecially in India and Persia. This would seem to indicate a con-
nexion between these countries and Ireland, the probability of
which, it has been attempted to show, is corroborated by many
other coincidences of language, of religion, and of customs, as well
as by the voice of tradition, and the light, though faint and scattered,
which is thrown upon the subject by the records of history. The
period of the first civilization of Ireland then would, under this
view, be placed in the same early age of the world which appears
to have witnessed, in those Oriental countries, a highly-advanced
condition of the arts and sciences, as well as flourishing institutions
of religious and civil polity, which have also, in a similar manner,
aecayed and passed away." (' Pictorial History of England.') The
same reasoning may be applied to the Druidical circles, of which
the resemblances are as striking, in countries far removed from
any knowledge of the customs of aboriginal Britons.

About seven miles south of Bristol is a small parish called Stanton
Drew. The name is held to mean the Stone Town of the Druids.
Stukely was of opinion that the Druidical monument at this place
was more ancient than Abury. The temple is held to have con-
sisted of three circles, a large central circle, and two smaller ones.
Of the larger circle five stones are still remaining ; and of the
smaller ones still more. Stanton Drew was described in 1718, by
Dr. Musgrave, and afterwards by Stukeley. The stones had suffered
great dilapidation in their time ; and the process of breaking them
up for roads has since gone forward with uninterrupted diligence.
They are very rude in their forms, as will be seen by reference to
the engraving (Fig. 34). That marked a is singular in its rugged-
ness. The stone b inclines towards the north, and its present posi-
tion is supposed to be its original one : in its general appearance of
bending forward, it is not unlike the single stone in the avenue at
Stonehenge. The stone c differs greatly from the others, in being
square and massive. The largest stone, d, is prostrate ; it is fifteen
feet and a half in length. The engraving represents not the cir-
cular arrangement, but remarkable separate stones, of which eisat a
considerable distance from either of the circles. The largest stones
are much inferior in their dimensions to those at Stonehenge and
Abury. The smaller ones lie scattered about at very irregular
distances.; and it certainly requires a great deal of antiquarian faith
to find the circles which are traced with such infallible certainty by
early and recent writers. It is very different with Abury and
Stonehenge. The country people have their own traditions about

C 2

Eft t'v ' '

'i\k. ■<:> .WlVKiU

life

3S —Kit's Coty House, near Aylesford, Kent.

jga

37.— Kit's Coty House.

39.— Trevethy Stone.

3«. — Kit's Coty House.

mm

mm*

40.— Cromlech at Plas Newydd, Anglesey.

41.— Constantine Tolman Corn-~;Jl

42.— Wayland Smith'* Cave.

13

14

OLD ENGLAND.

[Book I.

these remains. They call them, " the wedding ;" holding that, as
a bride and bridegroom were proceeding to their espousals, sur-
rounded by pipers and dancers, the whole party, for what crime we
are not informed, were suddenly turned into stone. The theories
of the learned are in some matters almost as difficult to be received
as the traditions of the vulgar. King says of the remains of
Stanton Drew, " There are stones cautiously placed nearly on each
side of the meridian, two at the one end for a sort of observer's
index, and two at the other, as if designed for leading sites to direct
the eye to certain points in the heavens, equally distant, a little to
the east and west of the south : and so in like manner, two to the
east, and one on the west side for an index, as if to observe the
rising of certain stars and planets." Superstition, we apprehend,
settles these matters much more easily than science. There were
formerly three huge upright stones near Kennet, not far from
Abury, which Dr. Plot held to be British deities. The country
people had a readier explanation of their use: for they called them
from time immemorial ' the Devil's Coits.' They could be play-
things, it might be readily imagined, for no other busy idler. But
the good folks of Somersetshire, by a sort of refinement of such
hackneyed traditions, hold that a great stone near Stanton Drew,
now called * Hackell's Coit,' and which formerly weighed thirty
tons, was thrown from a hill about a mile off by a mortal champion,
Sir John Hautville. It is remarkable, though perhaps natural, that
there is generally some superstitious notion associated with these
monuments of a dim antiquity. "We shall have presently to speak
of the singular erection near Maidstone, called Kit's Coty House.
Near this supposed cromlech are some large stones, scattered about
a ploughed field. A coachman, who was duly impressed with the
claims of Kit's Coty House to notice, told us, as the climax of the
extraordinary things connected with it, that no one had ever been
able to count the stones in that field, so that it was impossible to
say what was their exact number. In the neighbourhood of
Stanton Drew, they have a variation of this belief which does not
go quite so far. They simply hold that it is wicked to attempt to
count, the stones.

The remains of Drnidical circles are so similar in their character
that a minute description of any other than the most remarkable
would be tedious and uninteresting to the general reader. We
shall content ourselves, therefore, with pointing out those of chief
importance, which may either recompense the visit of the traveller,
or lead the student of British antiquities to more careful inquiries.

Camden, who made an exact survey of Cumberland in 1599,
thus describes a celebrated British monument near Penrith : " At
Little Salkeld there is a circle of stones, seventy-seven in number,
each ten foot high : and before these, at the entrance, is a single
one by itself, fifteen foot high. This the common people call Long
Meg, and the rest her daughters ; and within the circle are two
heaps of stones, under which they say there are dead bodies buried.
And indeed it is probable enough that this has been a monument
erected in memory of some victory." It is held by later antiquaries
that Camden was in error in considering this to have been a monu-
ment of some victory, and that it is an undoubted Druidical circle.
It is not of the grandeur of Stonehenge and Abury, for none of the
stones exceed ten feet in height. There is another circle of stones
within a mile and a half of Keswick. Near that bleak and dreary
region, between Penrith and Kendal, called Shapfells, was, some
thirty years ago, another remarkable Druidical monument ; but
upon the inclosure of the parish of Shap the stones were blown up
by gunpowder, and were converted into rude fences. At Arbelows,
about five miles from Bakewell, in Derbyshire, is a Druidical circle,
which, according to King, " there is great reason to think, notwith-
standing its mutilated appearance in its present ruined state, was
once a regular structure very nearly of the same kind with that of
Stonehenge." In Oxfordshire, about three miles north-west of
Chipping Norton, are the remains of a circle of small rude stones,
the highest of which is not more than five feet above the ground.
There appears to be little doubt of this circle belonging to the early
British period ; though Camden and others hold it to be the monu-
ment of a Danish victory. The description which Camden gives
of these Rollrich or Rowldrich stones is very curious : " A great
monument of antiquity : a number of vastly large stones placed in
a circular figure, whicli the country people call Rolle-rich-stones,
and have a common tradition that they were once men and were
turned into stones. They are irregular, and of unequal height,
and by the decays of time are grown ragged and very much im-
paired. The highest of them, which lies out of the ring towards the
east, they call The King, because they fancy he should have been
King of England if he could have seen Long Compton, a village
which is within view at a very few steps farther. Five larger

stones, which on one side of the circle are contiguous to one another,
they pretend were knights or horsemen, and the other common
soldiers." About five miles from Aberdeen in Scotland are the
remains of a circle of large stones and smaller stones. At Stennis
in the Orkney Islands a circle is described where some of the stones
are twenty feet high.

The Druidical circles in their uniformity of character present
the indubitable evidence that they were symbolical of the mysteries
of the prevailing religion of the country. They were essentially
religious edifices. They were probably, at the same time, what the
Icelandic writers call Doom rings, or Circles of Judgment. That
these monuments, in association with religious rites and solemn
decisions, had a deep influence upon the character of our rude
forefathers, we cannot reasonably doubt. They were a bold and
warlike race, an imaginative race, not placing the sole end of ex-
istence in the consumption of the fruits of the earth, but believing
in spiritual relations and future existences. Degrading as their
superstitions might be, and blind their notions of the future, their
belief was not a mere formal and conventional pretence ; it was a
principle operating upon their actions. We have the express testi-
mony of an ancient poet to this effect of the old worship of this
land. Lucan, in a noble passage in the first book of the Pharsalia,
addresses the Druids in the well known lines beginning " Et vos
babaricos." The translation of Rowe is generally quoted : but it
appears to us that the lines are rendered with more strength and
freedom by Kennett, who translated the poetical quotations in
Gibson's edition of Camden's ' Britannia :'

" And you, 0 Druids, free from noise and arms,
Renew'd your barbarous rites and horrid charms.
What Gods, what powers in happy mansions dwell,
Or only you, or all but you can tell.
To secret shades, and unfrequented groves,
From world and cares your peaceful tribe removes.
You teach that souls, eas'd of their mortal load,
Nor with grim Pluto make their dark abode,
Nor wander in pale troops along the silent flood,
But on new regions cast resume their reign,
Content to govern earthy frames again.
Thus death is notliing but the middle line
Betwixt what lives will come, and what bave been.
ILippy the people by your charms possess'd!
Nor fate, nor fears, disturb their peaceful breast.
On certain dangers unconcern'd they run,
And meet witli pleasure what they would not shun ;
Defy death's slighted power, and bravely scorn
To spare a life that will so soon return."

In reading this remarkable tribute to the national courage of our
remote ancestors, let us not forget that this virtue, like all other
great characteristic virtues of a community, was based upon a prin
ciple, and that the principle, whatever might be its errors, rested
upon the disposition of man to believe and to reverence. Those
who would build the superstructure of national virtue upon what
they hold to be the more solid foundation of self-interest, may, we
conceive, create a restless, turmoiling, turbulent democracy, astute
in all worldly business, eager for all sensual gratifications, exhibit-
ing the glitter of wealth plating over vice and misery; confident
in their superiority ; ignorant of the past, careless of the future ;
but they will raise up no high-minded, generous, self-devoting
people ; no people that will distinguish between liberty and anarchy
no thoughtful, and therefore firm and just, people ; no people that
Mill produce any great intellectual work, whether in art or in
literature : no people that will even leave such monuments behind
them as the Stonehenge and Abury of the blind and benighted
Druids.

The high road from Rochester to Maidstone presents several of
those rich and varied prospects which so often in England compen-
sate the traveller for the absence of the grander elements of pic-
turesque beauty. Here, indeed, are no mountains shrouded in mist
or tipped with partial sunlight; but the bold ridges of chalk are
the boundaries of valleys whose fertility displays itself in wood and
pasture, in corn-lands, and scattered villages. If we look to the
north, the broad Medway expands like a vast lake, with an amphi-
theatre of town and hill-fort, which tell at one and the same time
the history of the different warfare of ancient strength and of
modern science. When we have ascended the highest point of the
ridge, we again see the Medway, an attenuated stream, winding
amidst low banks for many a mile. The hill of chalk is of a sufficient
height to wear an aspect of sterility ; it has some of the bleak fea-
tures of a mountain-land. The road lies close under the brow of

ClIAP. I.]

OLD ENGLAND.

15

the hill, with a gentle slope to the village of Aylesford — an histori-
cal village. Not far from the point where the Aylesford road
intersects the high road is the remarkable monument called Kit's
Coty House (Fig. 36). Unlike most monuments of the same high
antiquity, it remains, in all probability, as originally constructed.
It was described two hundred and fifty years ago by the antiquary
Stow, and the description is as nearly exact as any that we could
write at the present hour: " I have myself, in company with divers
worshipful and learned gentlemen, beheld it in anno 1590, and it
is of four flat stones, one of them standing upright in the middle of
two others, inclosing the edge sides of the first, and the fourth laid
flat across the other three, and is of such height that men may
stand on either side the middle stone in time of storm or tempest,
safe from wind and rain, being defended with the breadth of the
stones, having one at their backs on either side, and the fourth
over their heads." In one point the description of Stow does not
agree with what we find at the present day : " About a coit's cast
from this monument lieth another great stone, much part thereof
in the ground, as fallen down where the same had been affixed."
This stone was half buried in 1773, when Mr. Colebrooke described
the monument ; it is now wholly covered up. The demand of a
few square feet for the growth of corn, in a country, with millions
of acres of waste land, would not permit its preservation. Is this
Kit's Coty House something different from other ancient monu-
ments, either in Ls site or its structure? Let us see how Camden,
writing at the same period as Stow, describes an erection in Caer-
narvonshire, in the parish of Trelech : "We find a vast rude
chech, or flat stone somewhat of an oval form, about three yards
in length, five foot over where broadest, and about ten or twelve
nches thick. A gentleman, to satisfy my curiosity, having em-
ployed some labourers to search under it, found it, after removing
much stone, to be the covering of such a barbarous monument as
we call Kist-vaen, or Stone-chest ; which was about four foot and
a half in length, and about three foot broad, but somewhat narrower
at the east than west end. It is made up of seven stones, viz.,
the covering stone already mentioned, and two side stones, one at
each end, and one behind each of these, for the better securing or
bolstering of them ; all equally rude, and about the same thickness,
the two last excepted, which are considerably thicker." The
dimensions of Kit's Coty House are thus given in Grose's 'Antiqui-
ties :' " Upright stone on the N. or N.W. side, eight feet high,
eight feet broad, two feet thick ; estimated weight, eight tons and a
half. Upright stone on the S. or S.E. side, eight feet high, seven
and a half feet broad, two feet thick ; estimated weight eight tons.
Upright stone between these, very irregular ; medium dimensions,
five feet high, five feet broad, fourteen inches thick; estimated
weight, about two tons. Upper stone, very irregular, eleven feet
long, eight feet broad, two feet thick ; estimated weight, about ten
tons seven cwt.' Holland, the first translator of Camden's ' Bri-
tannia,' gives a description of Kit's Coty House, which includes his
notion, which was also that of Camden, of the original purpose of
this monument. " Catigern, honoured with a stately and solemn
funeral, is thought to have been interred near unto Aylesford,
where under the side of a hill, I saw four huge, rude, hard stones
erected, two for the sides, one transversal in the middest between
them, and the hugest of all, piled and laid over them in manner of
the British monument which is called Stonehenge, but not so arti-
ficially with mortice and tenants." The tradition to which Holland
refers is, that a great battle was fought at Aylesford, between the
Britons commanded by Catigern, the brother of Vortimer, and the
Saxon invaders under Hengist and Horsa : in this battle the Saxons
were routed, but Catigern fell. An earlier writer than Holland,
Lambarde, in his 'Perambulations of Kent,' 1570, also describes
this monument in the parish of Aylesford as the tomb of Catigern :
"the Britons nevertheless in the mean space followed their victory
(as I said) and returning from the chace, erected to the memory of
Catigern (as I suppose) that monument of four huge and hard
stones, which are yet standing in this parish, pitched upright in the
ground, covered after the manner of Stonage (that famous sepul-
chre of the Britons upon Salisbury Plain), and now termed of the
common people here Citscotehouse." Antiquaries have puzzled
themselves about the name of this Kentish monument. Kit, ac-
cording to Grose, is an abbreviation of Catigern, and Coty is Coity,
coit being a name for a large flat stone ; so that Kit's Coty House
is Catigern's House built with coits. Lambarde expressly says,
" now termed of the common people here Citscotehouse." The fa-
miliar name has clearly no more to do with the ancient object of
the monument than many other common names applied to edifices
belonging to the same remote period. No one thinks, for example,
that the name of c Long Meg and her daughters/ of which we have

spoken, can be traced back even to the Saxon period. The theory
of the earlier antiquaries that the monuments which we now gene-
rally call Druidical belong to a period of British history after the
Christian era, and commemorate great battles with the Saxons or the
Danes, is set at rest by the existence of similar monuments in distant
parts of the world ; proving pretty satisfactorily that they all had a
common origin in some form of religious worship that was widely
diffused amongst races of men whose civil history is shrouded in
almost utter darkness. Palestine h*s its houses of coits as well as
England. The following description is from the travels of Cap-
tains Irby and Mangles : " On the banks of the Jordan, at the
foot of the mountain, we observed some very singular, interesting
and certainly very ancient tombs, composed of great rough stones,
resembling what is called Kit's Coty House in Kent. They are
built of two long side stones, with one at each end, and a small
door in front, mostly facing the north : this door was of stone. All
were of rough stones apparently not hewn, but found in flat frag-
ments, many of which are seen about the spot in huge flakes. Over
the whole was laid an immense flat piece, projecting both at the
sides and ends. What rendered these tombs the more remarkable
was, that the interior was not long enough for a body, being only
five feet. This is occasioned by both the front and back stones
being considerably within the ends of the side ones. There are
about twenty-seven of these tombs, very irregularly situated."
These accomplished travellers call these Oriental monuments tombs,
but their interior dimensions would seem to contradict this notion.
The cause of these narrow dimensions is clearly pointed out ; the
front and back stones are considerably within the ends of the side
ones. Kit's Coty House (Figs. 37, 38) has no stone that we can call
a front stone ; it is open ; but the back stone has the same peculiarity
as the Palestine monuments ; it is placed considerably within the
side ones. The side stones lean inwards against the back stone ;
whilst the large flat stone at top, finding its own level on the irre-
gular surfaces, holds them all firmly together, without the mortice
and tenon which are required by the nicer adjustment of the super-
incumbent stone upon two uprights at Stonehenge. It is evident
that the mode of construction thus employed has preserved these
stones in their due places for many centuries. The question then
arises, for what purpose was so substantial an edifice erected, hav-
ing a common character with many other monuments in this coun-
try, and not without a striking resemblance to others in a land with
which the ancient Britons can scarcely be supposed to have held
any intercouse? It is maintained that such buildings, called
cromlechs, were erected for the fearful purpose of human sacrifice.
" For here we find in truth a great stone scaffold raised just high
enough for such a horrid exhibition, and no higher ; and just large
enough in all its proportions for the purpose, and not too large, and
so contrived as to render the whole visible to the greatest multitude
of people ; whilst it was so framed and put together, though super-
stitiously constructed only of unhewn stones in imitation of purer
and more primeval usages, that no length of time nor any common
efforts of violence could destroy it or throw it down." This is
King's description of what he believes to have been the terrible use
of Kit's Coty House. The situation of this monument certainly
renders it peculiarly fitted for any imposing solemnity, to be per-
formed amidst a great surrounding multitude. But it does appear
to us that a stone scaffold, so constructed, was of all forms the most
unfitted for the sacrifice of a living victim, to be accomplished by
the violence of surrounding priests. Diodorus says of the Druids
of Gaul, " Pouring out a libation upon a man as a victim, they smite
him with a sword upon the breast in the part near the diaphragm,
and on his falling who has been thus smitten, both from the manner
of his falling and from the convulsions of his limbs, and still more
from the manner of the flowing of his blood, they presage what will
come to pass." King accommodates Kit's Coty House to this descrip-
tion ; arguing that the top of the flat stone was a fitting place for
these terrible ceremonies. The notion seems somewhat absurd ; the
extreme dimensions of the top stone are not more than eleven feet in
any direction ; a size in itself unsuited enough for such a display of
physical force. But this narrow stone is also shelving ; it is about
nine feet from the ground in front, and seven feet at the back,
having a fall of two feet in eleven feet. King says, " And yet
the declivity is not such as to occasion the least danger of any
slipping or sliding off." The plain reader may possibly ask what
at any rate is to prevent the victim falling off when he receives
the fatal blow ; and wonder how the presage described by Diodorus
is to be collected from the manner of his falling, when he must
infallibly slide down at the instant of his fall. We must in truth
receive the Roman accounts of the sacrificial practices of the
ancient Druids with some suspicion. Civilized communities have

%?!&:;

4G.— Kilmarth Rocks, as seen from the Sonth-east.

43.— Harold's Stones, Trcleeh, Monmouthshire.

47.— The Cheesewring, as seen from the North-west.

45.— Coronation Chair. Benoath the seat is the "Stone of Destiny. '

44.— Hare Stone, Cornwall.

48— Hugh Lloyd's.Pulpit.

16

55.— Welsh Pigsty.

49.— Huts in ft Cingalese Village.

60.— Gaulish Huts.— From Vne Antonine Column,

51.— Plan and Section of Chun Castle.

53.— Plan of Chambers on a Farm twelve miles from Ballyhendon.

No. 3,

56.— The Druid Grove.

j*mjw±

m\

ra

w

120 feet. * "~

WBKmJBm

54.— Ground-plan and Section of the Subterranean Chamber at
Carrighill.

62.— Plan of Chambers at Bally aenchax.

18

OLD ENGLAND.

[Book L

a natural tendency to exaggerate the horrors of superstitious
observances amongst remote nations that they call barbarous.
The testimony is too strong to admit of a doubt that human
sacrifice did obtain amongst the ancient Britons; but it can scarcely
be believed that the practice formed so essential a part of their
■worship as to call for the erection of sacrificial altars throughout
tiie land. Kit's Coty House is by some called a cromlech (or flat
stone resting upon other stones), by which name is now generally
understood an altar of sacrifice; but by others it is called a kist-
vaen (or stone-chest), being, as they hold, a sepulchral monument.
The Isle of Anglesey, anciently called Mona, was the great strong-
hold of Druidism, whilst the Romans had still a disturbed possession
of the country. Tacitus, describing an attack upon Mona, says
that the British Druids "held it right to smear their altars with the
blood of their captives, and to consult the will of the gods by the
quivering of human flesh." At Plas Newydd, in the Isle of
Anglesey, are two cromlechs (Fig. 40) ; and it is believed that
these remains confirm the account of Tacitus, and that they were
the altars upon which the victims were sacrificed. Near Liskeard, in
Cornwall, in the parish of St. Clear, is a cromlech called Trevethy
Stone, Trevedi being said to signify in the British language a place
of graves (Fig. 39). In the neighbourhood of Lanibourn, in Berk-
shire, are many barrows, and amongst them is found the cromlech
called Wayland Smith (Fig. 42.) The tradition which Scott has
so admirably used in his ' Kenilworth,' that, a supernatural smith here
dwelt, who would shoe a traveller's horse for a " consideration," is
one of the many superstitions that belong to these places of doubtful
origin and use, a remnant, of the solemn feelings with which they were
once regarded. In Cornwall there are many cromlechs and kist-vaens
described by Borlase. They are numerous in Wales, and some are
found in Ireland. In the county of Louth there is one which bears the
name of the Killing Stone ; and this is held by King to be a decisive
proof of its original use. But, although we may well believe that
the horrid practice of human sacrifice was incidental to the Druidical
worship, we are not to collect from the Roman writers that it con-
stituted the chief part of the Druidical system. It is clear that
there were many high and abstract doctrines taught under that
system ; and that the very temples of the worship were symbolical
of certain principles of belief. Whether the cromlechs or kist-vaens
were used for sacrifice, it has been thought that the stone-chests, at
least, were symbolical of one of the great traditions of mankind
which was widely diffused ; and which therefore exhibited itself in
the outward forms of sacred places amongst divers nations. The
form of an ark or chest is prevalent in all the ancient religions of
the world. A recent writer says, "On careful deliberation, and
considering that the first tabernacles and constructed temples are
to be taken as commentaries on the stone monuments of more ancient
date, we are disposed to find an analogy between the kist-vaen, or
stone-chest, and the ark, or sacred chest, which we find as the most
holy object in the tabernacle and temple of the Hebrew, as well as
in the Egyptian and some other heathen temples." (Kitto's ' Pales-
tine.') The ark of Noah, the cradle of the post-diluvian races, was
thus symbolized. In this point of view we can understand how the
same form of building shall be found on the banks of the Jordan and
on the banks of the Medway. It is a curious fact that the Bards,
who were the direct successors of the Druids, and who continued to
preserve some of their mysterious and initiatory rites after the
Driddical worship was suppressed by the Romans, have distinct
allusions to the ark, or stone-chest, in which the candidate for
admission to the order underwent a probationary penance. The
famous Welsh bard, Taliesen, gives a remarkable description of this
ceremony, which is thus translated by Davies : " I was first modelled
into the form of a pure man, in the hall of Ceridwen, who subjected
me to penance. Though small within my chest, and modest in my
deportment I was great. A sanctuary carried me above the surface
of the earth. Whilst I was enclosed within its ribs, the sweet Awen
rendered me complete: and my law, without audible language, was
imparted to me by the old giantess, darkly smiling in her wrath ;
but her claim was not regretted when she set sail." Davies adds,
" Ceridwen was, what Mr. Bryant pronounces Ceres to have been,
the genius of the ark; and her mystic rites represented the me-
morials of the deluge."

There are remains of the more ancient times of Britain whose
uses no antiquarian writers have attempted, by the aid of tradition
or imagination, satisfactorily to explain. They are, to a certain
extent, works of art; they exhibit evidences of design ; but it would
appear as if the art worked as an adjunct to nature. The object
of the great Druidical monuments, speaking generally, without
reference to their superstitious uses, was to impress the mind with
something like a feeling of the infinite, by the erection of works of

such large proportions that in these after ages we still feel that
they are sublime, without paying respect to the associations which
once surrounded them. So it would appear that those who once
governed the popular mind sought to impart a more than natural
grandeur to some grand work of nature, by connecting it with some
effort of ingenuity which was under the direction of their rude science.
Such are the remains which have been called Tolmen ; a Tohnan
being explained to be an immense mass of rock placed aloft on two
subjacent rocks which admit of a free passage between them. Such
is the remarkable remain in the parish of Constantine in Cornwall :
" It is one vast egg-like stone thirty-three feet in length, eighteen
feet in width, and fourteen feet and a half in thickness, placed on
the points of two natural rocks, so that a man may creep under it."
(Fig. 41.) There appears to be little doubt that this is a work of
art, as far as regards the placing of the huge mass (which is held to
weigh seven hundred and fifty tons), upon the points of its natural
supporters. If the Constantine Tolman be a work of art, it
furnishes a most remarkable example of the skill which the early
inhabitants of England had attained in the application of some
great power, such as the lever, to the aid of man's co-operative
strength. But there are some remains which have the appearance of
works of art, which are probably, nothing but irregular products
of nature, — masses of stone thrown on a plain surface by some great
convulsion, and wrought into fantastic shapes by agencies of dripping
water and driving wind, which in the course of ages work as effectually
in the changes of bodies as the chisel and the hammer. Such is
probably the extraordinary pile of granite in Cornwall called the
Cheesewring, a mass of eight stones rising to the height of thirty-
two-feet, whose name is derived from the form of an ancient cheese-
pre.ss (Fig. 47). It is held, however, that some art may have been
employed in clearing the base from circumjacent stones. Such is
also a remarkable pile upon a lofty range called the Kilmarth Rocks,
which is twenty eight feet in height, and overhangs more than
twelve feet towards the north (Fig. 46.) The group of stones at
Festiniog in Merionethshire, called Hugh Lloyd's pulpit (Fig. 48),
is also a natural production. But there are other remains which
the antiquaries call Logan, or Rocking-stones, in the construction of
which some art appears decidedly to have been exercised. Corn-
wall is remarkable for these rocking-stones. Whether they were
the productions of art or wholly of nature, the ancient writers
seem to have been impressed with a due sense of the wonder which
attached to such curiosities. Pliny tells of a rock near Harpasa
which might be moved with a finger (placed no doubt in a parti-
cular position) but would not stir with a thrust of the whole bodyr.
Ptolemy, with an expression in the highest degree poetical, speaks
of the Gygonian rock, which might be stirred with the stalk of an
asphodel, but could not be removed by any force. There is a rock-
ing-stone in Pembrokeshire, which is described in Gibson's edition
of Camden's ' Britannia,' from a manuscript account by Mr. Owen ;
" This shaking stone may be seen on a sea-cliff within half a mile of
St. David's. It is so vast that I presume it may exceed the draught
of an hundred oxen, and it is altogether rude and unpolished. The
occasion of the name (Y maen sigl, or the Rocking-stone) is for
that being mounted upon divers other stones about a yard in height
is so equally poised that a man may shake it with one finger so
that five or six men sitting on it shall perceive themselves moved
thereby." There is a stone of this sort at Golcar Hill, near
Halifax in Yorkshire, which mainly lost its rocking power through
the labours of some masons, who, wanting to discover the principle
by which so large a weight was made so easily to move, hewed and
hacked at it until they destroyed its equilibrium. In the same
manner the soldiers in the civil wars rendered the rocking-stone of
Pembrokeshire immoveable after Mr. Owen had described it; but
their object was not quite so laudable as that of the masons who
sought to discover the mystery of the stone of Golcar Hill. The
soldiers upset its equipoise upon the same principle that they broke
painted glass and destroyed monumental brasses ; they held that
it was an encouragement to superstition. In the same way the
soldiers of Cromwell threw down a famous stone called Men-
amber, in the parish of Sithney, in Cornwall, which a little child
might move ; and it is recorded that the destruction required im-
mense labour and pains. Some few years ago one of these famous
rocking-stones, on the coast of Cornwall, was upset by a ship's
crew for a freak of their officers ; but the people, who had a just
veneration for their antiquities, insisted upon the rocking-stone
being restored to its place: it was restored; but the trouble and
expense were so serious, that the disturbers went away with a due
sense of the skill of those who had first poised these mighty
masses., as if to assert the permanency of their art, and to show that
all that is gone before us is not wholly barbarous. It is a curious

LEIQHTON, BROS.

THE CORONATION CHAIR.

Chap. I.J

OLD ENGLAND.

19

fact that the tackle which was user! for the restoration of this rock-
ing-stone, and which was applied by military engineers, broke under
the weight of the mass which our rude forefathers had set up. The
rocking -stones which are found throughout the country are too nu-
merous here to be particularly described. They are in many places
distinctly surrounded by Druidical remains, and have been consi-
dered as adjuncts to the system of divination by which the priest-
hood maintained their influence over the people.

In various parts of England, in Wales, in Ireland, and in the
Western Islands of Scotland, there are found large single stones,
/irmly fixed in the earth, which have remained in their places from
time immemorial, and which are generally regarded with some sort
of reverence, if not superstition, by the people who live near them.
They are in all likelihood monuments which were erected in
memory of some remarkable event, or of some eminent person.
They have survived their uses. Written memorials alone shine with
a faint light through the darkness of early ages. The associations
that once made these memorials of stone solemn things no longer
surround them. When Jack Cade struck his sword upon London
Stone, the act was meant to give a solemn assurance to the people
of his rude fidelity. The stone still stands; and we now look upon
it simply with curiosity, as one of the few remains of Roman Lon-
don. Some hold that it had " a more ancient and peculiar desig-
nation than that of having been a Roman Milliary, even if it ever
were used for that purpose afterwards. It was fixed deep in the
ground; and is mentioned so early as the time of iEthelstan, king
of the West Saxons, without any particular reference to its having
been considered as a Roman Milliary stone." (King.) If this
stone, which few indeed of the busy throngs of Cannon-street cast
a look upon, were only a boundary-stone, such stones were held as
sacred things even in the times of the patriarchs : " And Laban
paid to Jacob, Behold this heap and behold this pillar, which I
have cast betwixt me and thee; this heap be witness, and this pillar
be witness, that I will not pass over this heap to thee, and that
thou shalt not pass over this heap and this pillar unto me, for harm."
(Genesis, c. xxxi., v. 51, 52.) In the parish of Sancred, in Corn-
Mall, is a remarkable stone called the Hare Stone (hare or hoar
meaning literally border or boundary), with a heap of stones lying
around it (Fig. 44). It is held that these stones are precisely simi-
lar to the heap and the pillar which were collected and set up at
the covenant between Jacob and Laban, recorded in the Scriptures
with such interesting minuteness. It is stated by Rowland, the
author of ' Mona Antiqua,' that wherever there are heaps of stones
of great apparent antiquity, stone pillars are also found near them.
This is probably too strong an assertion ; but the existence of such
memorials, which, King says, "are, like the pyramids of Egypt,
records of the highest antiquity in a dead language," compared
with the clear descriptions of them in the sacred writings, leaves
little doubt of the universality of the principle which led to their
erection. A heap of stones and a single pillar was not, however, the
only form of these stones of memorial. At Trelech, in Monmouth-
shire, are three remarkable stones, one of which is fourteen feet
above the ground, and which evidently formed no part of any
Druidical circle. These are called Harold's Stones (Fig. 43).
Near Boroughbridge, in Yorkshire, are some remarkable stones of
similar character, called the Devil's Arrows. The magnitude of
these stones of memorial was probably sometimes regulated by the
importance of the event which they were intended to celebrate ; but
their sacred character in many cases did not depend upon their size,
and their form is sometimes unsuited to the notion that they were
boundary stones, or even monumental pillars. The celebrated stone
which now forms the seat of the coronation chair of the sovereigns
of England is a flat stone, nearly square. It formerly stood in
Argyleshire, according to Buchanan ; who also says that King Ken-
neth, in the ninth century, transferred it to Scone, and enclosed it
in a wooden chair. The monkish tradition was, that it was the
identical stone which formed Jacob's pillow. The more credible
legend of Scotland is, that it was the ancient inauguration-stone of
the kings of Ireland. " This fatal stone was said to have been
brought from Ireland by Fergus, the son of Eric, who led the
Dalriads to the shores of Argleshire. Its virtues are preserved in
the celebrated leonine verse: —

Ni fallat fatum, Scoti, quocimqiie locatum
Invenient lapideni, regnare tenentur ibidem.

Which may be rendered thus : —

Unless the Fates are faithless found,

And Prophet's voice be vain,
Where'er this monument be found

The Scottish race shall reign."

Sir Walter Scott, in his graceful style, gives us this version of his
country's legend. The stone, as the youngest reader of English
history knows, was removed to Westminster from Scone, by
Edward I. ; and here it remains, as an old antiquarian has described
it, " t he ancientest respected monument in the world ; for, although
some others may be more ancient as to duration, yet thus super
stitiously regarded are they not." (Fig. 45.) The antiquity of this
stone is undoubted, however it may be questioned whether it be the
same stone on which the ancient kings of Ireland were inaugurated
on the hill of Tara. This tradition is a little shaken by the fact
that stone of the same quality is not uncommon in Scotland. The
history of its removal from Scone by Edward I. admits of no doubt.
A record exists of the expenses attending its removal ; and this is
the best evidence of the reverence which attached to this rude seat
of the ancient kings of Scotland, who, standing on it in the sight of
assembled thousands, had sworn to reverence the laws, and to do
justice to the people.*

Of the domestic buildings of the early Britons there are no
remains, if we except some circular stone foundations, which may
have been those of houses. It is concluded, perhaps somewhat too
hastily, that their houses were little better than the huts of the
rude tribes of Africa or Asia in our own day (Fig. 49). In the
neighbourhood of Llandaff were, in King's time, several modern
pig-sties, of a peculiar construction ; and he held that the form of
these was derived from the dwellings of the ancient Britons (Fig.
55). This form certainly agrees with the description which Strabo
gives of the houses of the Gauls, which he said were constructed of
poles and wattled work, of a circular form, and with a lofty taper-
ing roof. On the Antonine column we have representations of the
Gauls and the Gaulish houses, but here the roofs are for the mo-t
part with domes (Fig. 50). Strabo further says, " The forests
of the Britons are their cities ; for, when they have enclosed a
very large circuit with felled trees, they build within it houses
for themselves and hovels for their cattle. These buildings are
very slight, and not designed for long duration." Caesar says,
" What the Britons call a town is a tract of woody country, sur-
rounded by a vallum and a ditch, for the security of themselves and
cattle against the incursions of their enemies." The towns within
woods were thus fortresses ; and here the Druidical worship in the
broad glades, surrounded by mighty oaks, which were their natural
antiquities, was cultivated amidst knots of men, held together by
common wants as regarded the present life, and common hopes
with reference to the future (Fig. 56). A single bank and ditch,
agreeing with Caesar's description, is found in several parts of the
island. There is such an entrenchment in the parish of Cellan,
Cardiganshire, called Caer Morus. We shall presently have to
speak of the ramparted camps, undoubtedly British, which are found
on commanding hills, exhibiting a skill in the military art to which
Caesar bore testimony, when he described the capital of Cassivel-
launus as admirably defended both by nature and art. But we here
insert a description of Chun Castle, in Cornwall, to furnish a proof
that the skill of the ancient Britons in building displayed itself in
more important works than their wattled huts: " It consists of two
circular walls, having a terrace thirty feet wide between (Fig.
51). The walls are built of rough masses of granite of various
sizes, some five or six feet long, fitted together, and piled up without
cement, but presenting a regular and tolerably smooth surface on
the outside. The outer wall was surrounded by a ditch nineteen
feet in width : part of this wall in one place is ten feet high, and
about five feet thick. Borlase is of opinion that the inner wall must
have been at least fifteen feet high ; it is about twelve feet thick.
The only entrance was towards the south-west, and exhibits in its
arrangement a surprising degree of skill and military knowledge for
the time at which it is supposed to have been constructed. It is six
feet, wide in the narrowest part, and sixteen in the widest, where the
walls diverge, and are rounded off on either side. There also ap-
pear indications of steps, up to the level of the area within the
castle, and the remains of a wall which, crossing the terrace from the
outer wall, divided the entrance into two parts at its widest end.
The inner wall of the castle incloses an area measuring one hundred
and seventy-five feet north and south, by one hundred and eighty
feet east and west. The centre is without any indication of build-
ings ; but all around, and next to the wall, are the remains of cir-
cular inclosures, supposed to have formed the habitable parts of the

* The Coronation Chair, the peat of which rests upon tin's stone of destiny,
is also represented in the illuminated engraving which accompanies this portion
of our work. It is a fae-simile of a highly-finished architectural drawing, and
is printed in oil colours from twelve separate plates, so united in the printing
as to produce a separate outline, and to give all the various tints of the original,

1) 2

Side View.

Foreshortened V'ew shewing i.ne end.
51.— Ancient British Canoes— Found nt Nona Stone. Sussex.

CO.— Woad. (Isa is Tinctoria.)

61. — Gaulish Costume.

20

~ . , , „ 59.— British Pearl Shells. Natural size

a. Duck fresh-water Pearl Mussel (Anodon Anatinus). 6. Swan ditto (Anodon Cygneus;

62.— Gaulish Costume.

e3.— Gaulish Cost imi

«6. — Shield la tho Mejmck Collection.

C5. Shield if thv Urilisu Mnseim..

6T— Circular British Shic'.J.

SI.— Remains of a British Breast-plate, found at Mold.

am

22

OLD ENGLAND.

[Book I,

castle. They are generally about eighteen or twenty feet in dia-
meter, but at the northern side there is a large apartment thirty by
twenty." (' Pictorial History of England.')

That the Britons were agriculturists, using the term in a larger
sense than applies to the cultivation of small patches of land by
solitary individuals, we may reasonably infer from some remarkable
remains that are not uncommon in these islands. Tacitus, in his
account of the manners of the Germans, says, " the Germans were
accustomed to dig subterraneous caverns, and then to cover them
with much loose mould, forming a refuge from wintry storms, and
a recepticle for the fruits of the earth: in this manner the rigour
of the frost is softened." Tacitus also says that these caverns are
hiding-places for the people upon the irruption of an enemy. Such
pits were common to the ancient people of the East, and are found
in modern times in other European countries. There is a singular
cavern of this sort at Royston, in Hertfordshire, which was dis-
covered in the market-place of that town in 1742. Kent has
several such pits. Hasted, the topographer of that country, describes
many such in the heaths and fields and woods near Crayford. He
says that at the mouth, and thence downward, they are narrow,
like the tunnel or passage of a well ; but at the bottom they are
large and of great compass, so that some of them have several
rooms, one within another, strongly vaulted, and supported with
pillars of chalk. Camden has given a rude representation of two
caverns near Tilbury in Essex, " spacious caverns in a chalky cliff,
built very artificially of stone to the height of ten fathoms, and
somewhat straight at the top. A person who had been down to
view them gave me a description of them." The chambers in the
caverns, which Camden depicts, consist either of a large space,
with semicircular recesses, or of two chambers, each with three
semicircular recesses connected by a passage. The universality
of the practice is shown in the caves which were discovered in
Ireland, in 1829, which are described in the 'Transactions of the
Antiquarian Society of London,' vol. xxiii. (Figs. 52, 53, and 54.)
There can be little doubt of the use of such caves. Diodorus
Siculus expressly says that the Britons laid up their corn in subter-
ranean repositories. There are other remarkable remains whose
purposes do not seem qtrite so clear. These are artificial pits of a
conical form. At the top of the Combe Hills, near Croydon, in
Surrey, is a pit of this sort, minutely described by King. An early
antiquarian, John Leland — who peregrinated England and Wales in
the time of Henry VIII., and whose descriptions, whenever lie
entered into detail, are so curious that we sigh over his usual brevity,
and wish that he were as prolix as the travellers of our own age —
thus described similar pits near Caernarvon: "There be a great
number of pits made with hand, large like a bowl at the head, and
narrow in the bottom, overgrown in the swart with fine grass, and
be scattered here and there about the quarters where the head of
Kenner river is, that commeth by Caire Kenner. And some of these
will receive a hundred men, some two hundred. They be in the
Black Mountain." ('Itinerary,' vol. viii. folio 107, a.)

Of a later period than that to which we are referring are pro-
bably the very singular caves of Hawthornden. Beneath the rock on
which Drummond and Jonson sat, looking out upon the delicious
glen whose exquisite beauties would seem the natural abodes of
oeucefulness and innocence, are the hiding-places of remote genera-
tions. Long galleries and dreary caverns cut in the rock, are
peopled by tradition with the brave and the oppressed hiding from
their enemies. Here we are shown the king's bedchamber; and
another cave, whose walls are cut into small recesses of about a
foot square, was the king's drawing-room. He was here surrounded
by ample conveniences for arranging the petty treasures of his
solitude. Setting these traditions aside, we may reasonably conclude
that the caves of Hawthornden were at once hiding-places and store-
houses : and it is not carrying our fancies too far to believe that the
shelved cavities of the rock were receptacles for food, in small por-
tions—the oatmeal and the pulse that were thus preserved from
worms and mildew.

The primitive inhabitants of all sea-girt countries are fishermen.
It is impossible not to believe that the people of Britain, having at
their command the treasures of wide aestuaries and deep rivers, were
fishermen to a large extent. The Britons must always have been a
people who were familiar with the waters. The Severn and the
Wye have still their coracles. Little boats so peculiar in their con-
struction that we may readily conceive them to belong to a remote
antiquity. Gibson, the translator and best editor of Camden, has
described these boats upon the Severn : " The fishermen in these
parts use a small thing called a coracle, in which one man beimr
seated will row himself with incredible swiftness with one hind,
while with the other he manages his net, angle, or other fishing-

tackle. It is of a form almost oval, made of split sally-twigs inter
woven (willow-twigs), round at the bottom, and on that part which
is next the water it is covered with a horse-hide. It is about five
feet in length and three in breadth, and is so light that, coming ofl
the water, they take them upon their backs and carry them home."
Such, we may conclude, were the fishing-boats of our primitive
ancestors (Fig 58). Some of the Roman writers might lead us
to believe that the Britons had boats capable of distant navigation;
but this is doubted by most careful inquirers. But the light boats
which were peculiar to the island were certainly of a construction
well suited to their objects ; for Ceesar, in his history of the Civil
War, tells us that he had learnt their use in Britain, and availed
himself of boats of a similar formation in crossing rivers in Spain.
These were probably canoes, hollowed out of a single tree. Such
have been found, from seven to eight feet long, in morasses and in
the beds of rivers, at very distant parts of the country — in Dum-
fries and in the marshes of the Medway. In 1834 a boat of this
description was discovered in a creek of the river Arun, in the vil-
lage of North Stoke, Sussex (Fig. 57). In draining the Martine
Mere, or Marton lake, in Lancashire, eight canoes, each formed of
a single tree, were found sunk deep in the mud and sand. The
pearl-fishery of Britain must have existed before the Roman
invasion, for Suetonius says that the hope of acquiring pearls was a
main inducement to Caesar to attempt the conquest of the country.
The great conqueror himself, according to Pliny, the naturalist,
dedicated to Venus a breast-plate studded with British pearls, and
suspended it in her temple at Rome. In a later age the pearls of
Caledonia were poetically termed by Ausonius the white shell*
berries. Camden thus describes the pearls of the little river Irt in
Cumberland : " In this brook the shell-fish, eagerly sucking in the
dew, conceive and bring forth pearls, or, to use the poet's words,
shell-berries. These the inhabitants gather up at low water; and
the jewellers buy them of the poor people for a trifle, but sell them
at a good price. Of these, and such like, Marbodaeus seems to
speak in that verse,

' Gignit et insignes antiqua Britannia baccas.'
(' And Britain's ancient shores great pearls produce.')"

The British pearls were not found in the shells of the oyster, as is
often thought, but in those of a peculiar species of mussel (Fig. 59).
The oysters of Britain, celebrated by Pliny and Juvenal after the
Roman conquest, contributed, we may reasonably suppose, to the
food of the primitive inhabitants.

The dresses of the inhabitants of Britain before the Roman inva-
sion are not, like those of the people of ancient Egypt, and other
countries advanced in the practice of the imitative arts, to be traced
in painting or sculpture. In Roman statues we have the figures of
ancient Gauls, which give us the characteristic dress of the Celtic
nations: the braccae, or close trowsers, the tunic, and the sagum, or
short cloak (Figs. 61, 62, 63). The dye of the woad was proba-
bly used for this cloth, as it was to colour the skins of the warriors
stripped for battle (Fig. 60). It is difficult to assign an exact
period to their use of cloth in preference to skins. It. is equally
difficult to determine the date of those valuable relics which have
been found in various places, exhibiting a taste of symmetry and
nice workmanship in the fabrication of their weapons, offensive and
defensive, and the ruder decorations of their persons. Such are the
remains of a golden breast-plate found at Mold, in Flintshire now
in the British Museum (Fig. 64). Such are the shields (F'igs. 65,
66, 67), of one of which (Fig. 67) Sir Samuel Meyrick, its
possessor, says, " It is impossible to contemplate the artistic portions
without feeling convinced that there is a mixture of British orna-
ments with such resemblances to the elegant designs on Roman works
as would be produced by a people in a state of less civilization."
Torques, or gold and bronze necklaces composed of flexible bars, were
peculiar to the people of this country. Of all these matters we
shall have further to speak in the next chapter — the Roman Period.
There also we may more properly notice the great variety of British
coins, of which we here present a group (Fig. 68). Ring-money,
peculiar to the Celtic nations, undoubtedly existed in Ireland previous
to the domination of the Romans in Britain. Although Caesar says
that the ancient Britons had no coined money, there is sufficient
probabili'y that they had their metal plates for purposes of currency,
such being occasionally found in English barrows. The Ring-
money (Fig. 69) has been found in great quantities in Ireland, of
bronze, of silver, and of gold. The rings vary in weight ; but they
are all exact multiples of a standard unit, showing that a uniform
principle regulated their size, and that this was determined by
their use as current coin. The weapons of the ancient Britons
show their acquaintance with the casting of metals. Their axe-

CllAP. I]

OLD ENGLAND

23

heads, called Celts, are composed of ten parts of copper and one of
tin (Figs. 70 and 71) ; their spear-heads, of six parts of copper and
one of tin. Moulds for spear-heads have been frequently found in
Britain and Ireland (Figs. 72 and 73).

There are no remains of those terrible war-chariots of the Britons
which Cassar describes as striking terror into his legions. King,
who labours very hard to prove that the people who stood up not only
with undaunted courage, but military skill, against the conquerors
of the world, were but painted savages, considers that the British
war-chariot was essentially the same as the little low cart which the
Welsh used in his day for agricultural purposes (Fig. 74). The
painters have endeavoured to realize the accounts of the Roman
writers, with more of poetry, and, we believe, with more of truth
(Fig. 75).

But if the chariots have perished, — if the spears and the axe-
heads are doubtful memorials of the warlike genius of the people, — ■
not so are the mighty earth-works which still attest that they
defended themselves against their enemies upon a system which
bespeaks their skill as well as their valour. The ramparted hill
of Old Sarum, with terrace upon terrace rising upon its banks and
ditches, and commanding the country for miles around, is held not
merely to have been a Roman station, or a British station after the
Romans, but a fortified place of the people of the country, even in
the time of the great Druidical monuments which are found scattered
over the great plain where this proud hill still stands in its ancient
majesty. The Roman walls, the Saxon Towers, the Norman cathe-
dral which have successively crowned this hill, have perished, but
here it remains, with all the peculiar character of a British fortress
still impressed upon it (Fig. 23). Such a fortress is the Hereford-
shire beacon (Fig. 76), which forms the summit of one of the highest
of the Malvern hills, and looks down upon that glorious valley of
the Severn which, perhaps more than any other landscape, proclaims
the surpassing fertility of ' Old England.' Such is in all likelihood
the castellated hill near Wooler, in Northumberland, which rises
two thousand feet above the adjacent plain, with its stone walls, and
ditches and crumbling cairns. It was in these hill-forts that the
Britons so long defied the Roman power ; and one of them (near
the confluence of the Coin and Teme, in Shropshire) is still sig-
nalised by the name of one of the bravest of those who fought for
the independence of their country — Caer-Caradoc, the castle of
Caractacus (Fig. 77). The Catter-thuns of Angus (Forfarshire)
are amongst the most remarkable of the Cahdonian strongholds.
They are thus described by Pennant, in his ' Tour in Scotland :' —
" After riding two miles on black and heathy hills, we ascended
one divided into two summits ; the higher named the White, the
lower the Black Catter-thun, from their different colour. Both are
Caledonian posts; and the first of most uncommon strength. It is
of an oval form, made of a stupendous dike of loose white stones,
whose convexity, from the base within to that without, is a hundred
and twenty-two feet. On the outside, a hollow, made by the dispo-
sition of the stones, surrounds the whole. Round the base is a deep
ditch, and below that, about a hundred yards, are vestiges of another
that went round the hill. The area within the stony mound is flat;
the greater axis or length of the oval is four hundred and thirty-
six feet ; the transverse diameter, two hundred. Near the east side
is the foundation of a rectangular building ; and on most parts are
the foundations of others small and circular ; all which had once
their superstructures, the shelter of the possessors of the post.
There is also a hollow, now almost filled with stones, the well of the
place. The literal translation of the word Catter-thun is Camp-
town." The vitrified forts of Scotland are so mysterious in their
origin and their uses, some holding them to be natural volcanic
productions, others artificial buildings of earth, made solid by the
application of fire, without cement, that we may safely omit them
in this notice of the British period.

In speaking of those ancient works in these islands which were
constructed upon a large scale for the defence of the country and
for the accommodation of the people, it is difficult to define the
precise share of the ancient Britons in their construction, as com-
pared with the labours of successive occupants of the country. Old
Sarum, for example, has the characteristics of a work essentially
different from the camps and castles of Roman origin. But the
Romans, too wise a people to be destroyers, would naturally improve
the old defences of the island, and adapt them to their own notions
of military science. So, we imagine, it would have been with what
we are accustomed to call the four great Roman Ways. The old
chroniclers record that King Dunwallo (called also Moliuncius or
Mulmutius) " began the four highways of Britain, the which were
finished and perfited of Beliius his son." This is the Mulmutius
whose civilizing deeds are thus iescribed by Spenser : —

"Then made he sacred laws, which some men say
Were unto him reveal'd in \i>ion ;
By which ho freed the traveller's highway,
The Church's part, and ploughman's portion,
Restraining stealth and strong extortion ;
The gratiuus Numa of Great Britain}' :
For, till his days, the chief dominion
By strength was wielded without policy :
Therefore he first wore crown of gold for dignity."

Camden, who naturally enough has a disposition, from the nature of
his learning, to hold that the civilization of Britain began from the
Roman conquest, laughs to scorn the notion of the great highways
being made before the Romans : — " Some imagine that these ways
were made by one Mulmutius, God knows who, many ages before the
birth of Christ; but this is so far from finding credit with me, that
I positively affirm they were made from time to time by the Romans.
When Agricola was Lieutenant here, Tacitus tells us, that ' the
people were commanded to carry their corn about, and into the most
distant countries: not to the nearest camps, but to those that were
far off and out of the way.' And the Britons (as the same author
has it) complained, ' that the Romans put their hands and bodies to the
drudgery of clearing woods and paving fens, with stripes and indig-
nities to boot." And we find in old records, 'In the days of Honorius
and Arcadius, there were made in Britain certain highways from
sea to sea.' That they were the work of the Romans, Bede himself
tell us : " The Romans lived within that wall (which, as I have
already observed, Severus drew across the island) to the southward ;
as the cities, temples, bridges and highways' made there, do plainly
testify at this day.'' But in these quotations there is nothing to
prove that there were not roads in Britain before the Romans. That
the more ancient roads were not the magnificent works which the
Roman3 afterwards constructed we may well believe ; but, on the
other hand, it is impossible to imagine that a people accustomed to
military movements were without roads. The local circumstances
also belonging to the great Druidical monuments, such as Stoneheno-e
and Abury, indicate with sufficient clearness that they were not
solely constructed with reference to the habits of a stationarv popu-
lation, but that they were centres to which great bodie of the
people resorted at particular seasons of solemnity. We may take,
therefore, the statements of the old chroniclers with regard to the
more ancient and important of the highways as not wholly fabulous.
Robert of Gloucester, in his rude rhyme, has told us as much as i3
necessary here to say about them : —

" Faire weyes many on ther ben in Englonde ;
But four most of all ther ben I understonde,
That thurgh an old kynge were made ere this,
As men schal in this boke aftir here tell I wis.
Fram the South into the North takith Erminge-strete.
Fram the East into the West goetli Ikeneld-strete.
Fram South-est to North-west, that is sum del grete,
Fram Dover into Chcstre goeth Watlyng-strete.
The ferth of thise is most of alle that tilleth fram Tateneys.
Fram the South-west to North-est into Englondes ende
Fosse men callith thilke wey that by mony town doth weude.
Thise four weyes on this londe kyng Belin the wise
Made and ordeined hem with sret fraunchise."

We have thus hastily presented a sketch, imperfect in the details,
but not without its impressiveness if regarded as exhibiting the
solemn picture of man struggling to comprehend the Infinite through
clouds and darkness — we have thus attempted to group the memo-
rials of ages which preceded the Roman domination in ' Old Eng-
land.' We look back upon these earliest records of a past state of
society with wonder not unmixed with awe, witli shuddering but
not with hatred : —

" Yet shall it claim our reverence, that to God,
Ancient of Days ! that to the eternal Sire
These jealous ministers of law aspire,
As to the one sole fount whence wisdom fiow'd,
Justice, and Order. Tremblingly escaped,
As if with prescience of the coming storm,
That intimation when the stars were shaped ;
And still, 'mid yon thick woods, the primal truth
Glimmers through many a superstitious form
That fJle the soul with unai filing ruth."

WoilDSWOKTII.

JO— CclS.

16.— The Herefordshire Beacon.

71.— Celt.

72.— Spear-Mould,

77— British Camp at Caer-Caradoc— Frcm Roy's Military Antiquities-

'3. — Spear as it would nave coffi.2
from the Mould.

75 — British War Chariot, Shield, and Spears.

74.— Welsh Agricultural Cart.

24

#!5§?u

80.— British and Roman Weapons.

at*

81.— Captive wearing the Torque.

79.— Symbols of Rome.

-Sr*

85.— Roman Eagle.

86. — Prow of a Roman Galley.

s =g!I?S!

ps=aia^-rv&u.

07. — Country near Dover.

83.— Dover Cliffs.

S3.— Julius Caesar. From a Copper Coin in the British Museum.

No. 4.

82.— Roman General, Standard- Bearers, &c.

84.— Julius Cssar.

25

26

OLD ENGLAND.

T>OOK I.

CHAPTEE IL— THE EOMAN PEEIOD.

HE inland part of Britain,
says Caesar, " is inhabited by
those who, according to the
tradition, were
of the island ;
sea-coast, by those who,
the sake of plunder or

existing

order to make war, had

among

the
the
for
in
cross-
the

,-f ed over from

— -^ Belgae, and in almost every

: case retained the names of

their native states from which

1=3 they emigrated to this island,

~~ in which they made war and

settled, and begun to till the

land. The population is very

great, and the buildings very numerous, closely resembling those

of the Gauls : the quantity of cattle is considerable

The island is of a triangular form, one side of the triangle being
opposite Gaul. One of the angles of this side, which is in Cantium
(Kent), to which nearly all vessels from Gaul come, looks toward

the rising sun ; the lower angle looks towards the south Of

all the natives, those who inhabit Cantium, a district the whole of
which is near the coast, are by far the most civilized, and do not
differ much in their customs from the Gauls." With these more
civilized people Caesar negotiated. They had sent him ambassadors
and hostages to avert the invasion which they apprehended ; but
their submission was fruitless. In the latter part of the summer of
the year 55 n.c. (Halley, the astronomer, has gone far to prove that
the exact day was the 26th of August), a Roman fleet crossed the
Channel, bearing the infantry of two legions, about ten thousand
men. This army was collected at the Portus Itius (Witsand), be-
tween Calais and Boulogne. Eighty galleys (Fig. 86) bore the
invaders across the narrow seas. As they neared the white cliffs
which frowned upon their enterprise (Figs. 87, 88, 90), Caesar
beheld them covered with armed natives, ready to dispute his land-
ing. The laurelled conqueror (Figs. 83, 84), who, according to
Suetonius, only experienced three reverses during nine years' com-
mand in Gaul, would not risk the Roman discipline against the
British courage, on a coast thus girt with natural defences. It is
held that the proper interpretation of his own narrative is, that he
proceeded towards the north ; and it is considered by most autho-
rities that the flat beach between Walmer Castle and Sandwich
was the place of his disembarkation. It was here, then, that the
British and Roman weapons first came into conflict (Fig. 80).
But the captains and the standard-bearers marched not deliberately
to the shore, as they are represented on the Column of Trajan
(Fig. 82). The cavalry and the war-chariots of the active Britons
met the invader on the beach : and whilst the soldiers hesitated to
leave the ships, the standard-bearer of the tenth legion leaped into
the water, exclaiming, as Caesar has recorded, " Follow me, my
fellow-soldiers, unless you will give up your eagle to the enemy :
I, at least, will do my duty to the republic and to our general !"
(Fig. 85.) The Romans made good their landing. The symbols
of the great republic were henceforward to become more familiar
to the skin-clothed and painted Britons (Fig. 79) ; but not as yet
were they to be bound with the chain of the captive (Fig. 81). The
galleys in which the cavalry of Caesar were approaching the British
shores were scattered by a storm. This calamity, and his imperfect
acquaintance with the country and with the coast, determined the
invader to winter in Gaul. It is a remarkable fact that Caesar was
ignorant of the height to which the tide rises in these narrow seas.
A heavy spring-tide came, and his transports, whicli lay at anchor,
were dashed to pieces, and his lighter galleys (Figs. 93, 94, 95),
drawn up on the beach, were swamped with the rising waves. This
second disaster occurred within a few hours of the conclusion of a
peace between the invader and the invaded. That very night, ac-
cording to Caesar, it happened to be full moon, when the tides

always rise highest-" a fact at the time wholly unknown to the
Romans. The Britons, with a breach of confidence that may al-
most be justified in the case of the irruption of a foreign power into
a peaceful land, broke the treaty. Caesar writes that they were
s.gnally defeated. But the invader hastily repaired his ships ; and
set sail, even without his hostages, for the opposite shores, where his
power was better established.

Caesar, early in the next year, returned to a conflict with the
people whose coast « looks towards the rising sun." He came in a
fleet of eight hundred vessels ; and the natives, either in terror or
in policy, left him to land without opposition. The flat shores of
Kent again received his legions ; and he marched rapidly info the
country, till he met a formidable enemy in those whom he had
described as « the inland people," who " for the most part do not
sow corn, but live on milk and flesh, and have their clothing of
skins." Caesar himself bears the most unequivocal testimony to the
indomitable courage of this people. The tribes with whom Caesar
came into conflict were, as described by him, the people of Cantium,
inhabitants of Kent ; the Trinobantes, inhabitants of Essex ; the
Cenimagni, inhabitants of Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cambridge'; the
Segontiaci, inhabitants of parts of Hants and Berks ; the Anca'lites,
inhabitants of parts of Berks and Wilts ; the Briboci, inhabitants'
of parts of Berks and the adjacent counties ; the Cassi, conjectured
to be the inhabitants of Cassio hundred, Herts.* Caesar, after va-
rious fortune, carried back his soldiers in the same year to Gaul.
He set sail by night, in fear, he says, of the equinoctial gales. He
left no body of men behind him ; he erected no fortress. It is pro-
bable that he took back captives to adorn his triumph. But the
Romans, with all their national pride, did not in a succeeding a"-e
hold Caesar's expedition to be a conquest. Tacitus says that he did
not conquer Britain, but only showed it to the Romans. Horace,
calling upon Augustus to achieve the conquest, speaks of Britain as
" intactus," (untouched) ; and Propertius, in the same spirit, de-
scribes her as " invictus," (unconquered). There is, perhaps, there-
fore, little of exaggeration in the lines which Shakspere puts into
the mouth of the Queen in ' Cymbeline :'

Kemernbcr, Sir, my liege,
The kings your ancestors ; together with
The natural bravery of your isle, which stands
As Neptune's park, ribbed and paled in
"With rocks unscaleable, and roaring waters ;
With sands that will not bear your enemies' boats,
But suck them up to tiie top-mast. A kind of conquest
Csesar made here ; but made not here his bras
Of came, and saw, and overcame : with shame
(The first that ever touch'd him) he was carried
From off our coast, twice beaten ; and his shipping
(Poor ignorant baubles !) on our terrible seas,
Like egg-shells mov'd upon their surges, crack'd
As easily 'gainst our rocks.

We have thus narrated very briefly the two descents of Caesar
upon Britain ; because, from the nature of his inroad into the
country, no monuments exist or could have existed to attest his
progress. But it is not so with the subsequent periods of Roman
dominion. The great military power of the ancient world may be
here traced by what is left of its arms and its arts. Camden has
well described the durable memorials of the Roman sway : " The
Romans, by planting their colonies here, and reducing the natives
under the rules of civil government — by instructing them in the
liberal arts, and sending them into Gaul to learn the laws of the
Roman empire, — did at last so reform and civilize them by intro-
ducing their laws and customs, that for the modes of their dress and
living they were not inferior to the other provinces. The buildings
and other works were so very magnificent, that we view the remains
of them to this day with the greatest admiration; and the common
people will have these Roman fabrics to be the works of giants."
We proceed to a rapid notice of the more important of these monu-
ments.

* See Maps of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.

Cha?. II.]

OLD ENGLAND.

27

In that curious record, in old French, of the foundation of the
Castle at Dover, which we find in Dugdale's ' Monasticon,' we are
told that when Arviragus reigned in Britain, he refused to be sub-
ject to Rome, and withheld the tribute ; making the Castle of Dover
strong with ditch and wall against the Romans, if they should come.
The old British hill-forts and cities were not works of regular form,
like the camps and castles of the Romans ; and thus the earliest
remains of the labours of man in Dover Castle exhibit a ditch and
a mound of irregular form, a parallelogram with the corners rounded
off, approaching to something like an oval. Yet within this ditch
are the unquestionable fragments of Roman architecture, still stand-
in"- up against the storms which have beaten against them for
nearly eighteen centuries (Fig. 89). We may well believe, there-
fore, that the statement of the chronicler is not wholly fabulous
when he said that a British king strengthened Dover Castle ; and
that the Romans, as in other cases, planted their soldiers in the
strongholds where the Britons had defied them. Be this as it may,
the Roman works of Dover Castle are among the most interesting
in the island, remarkable in themselves, suggestive of high awd so-
lemn remembrances. Toil up the steep hill, tourist, and mount the
tedious steps which place you on the heights where stands this
far-famed castle. Look landward, and you have a prospect of
surpassing beauty, not unmixed with grandeur ; look seaward, and
you may descry the cliffs of France, with many a steamboat bringing
in reality those lands together which dim traditions say were once
unsevered by the sea. Look not now upon the Norman keep, for
after a little space we will ask you to return thither ; but wind
round the slight ascent which is still before you, till you are at the
foot of the grassy mound upon which stand the ruined walls which
attest that here the Romans trod. That octagonal building, some
thirty or forty feet high, and which probably mounted to a much
greater height, was a Roman pharos, or lighthouse. Mark the
thickness of its walls, at least ten feet ! see the peculiarity of its
construction, wherever the modern casing, far more perishable than
the original structure, will permit you. The beacon-fires of that
tower have long been burnt out. They were succeeded by bells,
which rung their merry peals when kings and lord-wardens came
here in their cumbrous pageantry. The bells were removed to
Portsmouth, and the old tower Mas unroofed. Man has taken no
care of it ; man has assisted the elements in its destruction. But
its builders worked not for their own age alone, as the moderns
work. Its foundations are laid in clay, and not upon the chalk.
The thin flat bricks, which are known as Roman tiles, are laid in
even courses, amidst intermediate courses of blocks of hard stalac-
titical concretions which must have been brought by sea from a con-
siderable distance. Some of the tiles are of a peculiar construction
having knobs and ledges as if to bind them fast witli the other
materials. In the true Roman buildings the uniformity of the courses,
especially where tiles are used, is most remarkable. Such is the
■case in this building : " With alternate courses formed of these and
other Roman tiles, and then of small blocks of the stalactitical
incrustations, was this edifice constructed, from the bottom to the top ;
— each course of tiles consisting of two rows ; and each course of
stalactites, of seven rows of blocks, generally about seven inches
deep, and about one foot in length. Five of these alternate courses,
in one part, like so many stages or stories, were discernible a few
years ago very clearly."— (King.) When the poor fisherman of
Rutupiae (Richborough) steered his oyster-laden bark to Gesoriacum
(Boulogne), the pharos of Dover lent its light to make his path
across the Channel less perilous and lonely. At Boulogne there was
a corresponding lighthouse of Roman work; an octagonal tower, with
twelve stages of floors, rising to the height of one hundred and
twenty-five feet. This tower is said to have been the work of Cali-
gula. It once stood a bowshot from the sea ; but in the course of
sixteen centuries the cliff was undermined, and it fell in 1644.
The pharos of Dover has had a somewhat longer date, from the
nature of its position. No reverence for the past has assisted to
preserve what remains of one of the most interesting memorials of
that dominion which had such important influences in the civilization
■of England. The mixed race in our country has, in fact, sprung
from these old Romans ; and the poetical antiquary thus carries lis
back to the great progenitors of Rome herself: "Whilst," says
Camden, " I treat of the Roman Empire in Britain (which lasted, as
I said, about four hundred and seventy-six years), it comes into my
mind how many colonies of Romans mast have been transplanted
hither in so long a time ; what numbers of soldiers were continually
sent from Rome, for garrisons ; how many persons were despatched
hither, to negotiate affairs, public or private; and that these, inter-
marrying with the Britons, seated themselves here, and multiplied into
families: for, ' Whereve) ' ( says Seneca) 'the Roman conquers

he inhabits.' So that I have ofttimes concluded that the Britons
might derive themselves from the Trojans by these Romans (who
doubtless descended from the Trojans), with greater probability
than either the Arverni, who from Trojan blood styled themselves
brethren to the Romans, or the Mamertini, Iledui, and others, who
upon fabulous grounds grafted themselves into the Trojan stock.
For Rome, that common mother (as one calls her), challenges all
such as citizens —

" Quos domuit, nexuque pio longinqua revinxit."
(" Whom conquer'd, she iu sacred bonds hath tied.")

The old traditions connected with Dover Castle, absurd as they
are, are founded upon the popular disposition to venerate ancient
things. The destruction of ancient things in this country, during
the last three centuries, was consummated when a sceptical, sneerin"-,
unimaginative philosophy was enabled, in its pride of reason, to
despise what was old, and to give us nothing that was beautiful and
venerable in the place of what had perished. Lambarde thus writes:
" The Castle at Dover, say Lydgate and Rosse, was first builded by
Julius Caesar, the Roman Emperor, in memory of whom they of the
Castle keep till this day certain vessels of old wine and salt which
they affirm to be the remain of such provisions as he brought into
it." The honest topographer adds, with a beautiful simplicity, "As
touching the which, if they be natural and not sophisticate, I suppose
them more likely to have been of that store which Hubert de Burgh
laid in there." Now Hubert de Burgh lived three hundred and
fifty years before Lambarde ; and we are inclined to think that even
his vessels of old wine might have stood a fair chance of being
tapped and drunk out during the troublesome times which elapsed
between the reign of John and the reign of Elizabeth. But yet it
were vain of us to despise this confiding spirit of the old writers.
We have gained nothing in literature or in art, perhaps very little
in morals, by calling for absolute proof in all matters of history ;
and by fancying that, if we cannot have a clear microscopic bird's-
eye view of the past, we are to turn from its dimly-lighted plains,
and its misty hills losing themselves in the clouds, as if there were
nothing soothing and elevating in their shadowy perspective. There
must be doubt and difficulty and uncertainty in all that belongs \o
very remote antiquity : —

" Darkness surrounds us ; seeking, we are lost
On Snowdon's wilds, amid Brigantian coves,
Or where the solitary shepherd roves
Along the plain of Sarum, by the Ghost
Of Time and Shadows of Tradition crost ,
And where the boatman of the Western Isles
Slackens his course to mark those holy piles
Which yet survive on bleak Iona's coast.
Nor these, nor monuments of eldest fame,
Nor Taliesin's unforgotten lays,
Nor characters of Greek or Roman fame,
To an unquestionable Source have led ;
Enough— if eyes that sought the Fountain-head
In vain, upon the growing Rill may gaze."

Wordsworth.

This is wisdom — a poet's wisdom, which has sprung and ripened in
an uncongenial age. But if we seek the " growing Rill," we shall
not gaze upon it with less pleasure if we have endeavoured, however
imperfectly and erringly, to trace it to the " Fountain-head."

Close by the pharos are the ruins of an ancient church (Fig. 89).
This church, which was in the form of a cross, was unquestionably
constructed of Roman materials, if it was not of Roman work.
The tiles present themselves in the same regular courses as in the
pharos. The latter antiquarians are inclined to the belief that this
church was constructed of the materials of a former Roman building.
It appears exceedingly difficult to reconcile such a belief with the
fact that Roman walls, wherever we find them in this country, are
almost indestructible. The red and yellow tiles at Richborough,
for example, of which we shall have presently to speak, are em-
bedded as firmly in the concrete as the layers of flint in a cliff of
chalk The flints may be removed with much greater ease from
the chalk than the tiles from the concrete. The whole forms a
solid mass which tool can hardly touch. It would have been no
economy, we believe, of labour or of material to have pulled down
such a Roman building, to erect another out of its ruins ; although,
indeed, the building may have been destroyed, and another building
of new materials may have been put together upon the principles of
Roman construction. Such considerations ought to induce us not
lightly to reject the traditions, which have come down to us through
the old ecclesiastical annalists, of a very early Christian church,
some say the first Christian church, having been erected within the
original Roman, or earlier than Roman, hill-fort in Dover Castle.
Little is left of this interesting ruin of some Christian church : and

E 2

02„— Roman Eajjlc

93.— Roman GaUev

89.— Romac Lighthouse, Church, and Trenches in Dover Castle.

Q1. — Roman Soldiers.

<>e.— Roman Standard Rearer

91. — Roman Church in Dover Castle.

94. — Roman Galley.

05.— Roman Galley

28

90 -Dover Cliffs

JN

100.— North Wall of Richboroagh

98 — Plan of liicnborough

102.— Bronze found at Richboroagh.

99— Richboroagh. General View, from the East.

.jiPitiii
I'liiiffi'iff

3

101.— Plan'or th« P-atform and Cross, Richborough,

J\ la A

Keep.

104.— rian of 1'orcheater Castle Hants.

103.— limns cf Ancient Church of Reculver.

29

30

OLD ENGLAND.

[Book. I

that little has been defaced by the alterations of successive centuries
(Fig. 91). But here is a religious edifice of Roman workmanship,
or built after the model of Roman workmanship, in the form dear
to the Christian worship, the primitive and lasting symbol of the
Christian faith. It is held by some, and perhaps not unreasonably,
that here stood the Prastorium of the Roman Castle — the elevated
spot for state display and religious ceremonial, the place of com-
mand and of sacrifice. It is held, too, that upon such a platform
was erected the Sacellum, the low buildings where the eagles which
led the Roman soldiers to victory were guarded with reverential
care. Such buildings, it is contended, might grow into Christian
churches. It is difficult to establish or to disprove these theories ;
but the fact is certain that in several of die undoubted Roman
castles, or camps, is a small building of cruciform shape, placed not
far from the centre of the enclosure. At Porchester (Fig. 104)
and at Dover these buildings have become churches. The chro-.
nicle of Dover Castle says (see Appendix, No. 1, to Dugdale's
Account of the Nunnery of St. Martin), " In the year of grace 180,
reigned in Britain Lucius. He became a Christian under Pope
Eleutherius, and served God, and advanced Holy Church as much
as he could. Amongst other benefits he made a church in the said
castle where the people of the town might receive the Sacraments."
The chronicler then goes on to tell us of " Arthur the Glorious,"
and the hall which he made in Dover Castle ; and then he comes
to the dreary period of the Saxon invasion under Hengist, when
"the Pagan people destroyed the churches throughout the land,
and thrust out the Christians." The remaining part of this history
which pertains to the old church in the castle is told with an im-
pressive quaintness : " In the year of grace 596, St. Gregory, the
Pope, sent into England his cousin St. Augustine, and many other
monks with him, to preach the Christian faith to the English.
There then reigned in Kent Adelbert (Ethelbert), who, through
the Doctrine of St. Augustine, became a Christian with all his
people ; and all the other people in the land so became through the
teachers which St. Augustine sent to them. This Adelbert had a
son whose name was Adelbold (Eadbald), who, after the death of Ids
father, reigned ; and he became a Pagan, and banished the people
of Holy Church out of his kingdom. Then the Archbishop of
Canterbury, Laurence, who was preacher after St. A'igustine, fled
with others out of the land. But St. Peter appeared to him, and
commanded that he should go boldly to the king and reprove him
for his misdeeds. He did so, and by the grace of God the king
repented and became devout to God and religious. This Adelbold
ordained twenty-two secular canons in the castle to serve Ins chapel,
and gave them twenty and two provenders (means of support).
The said canons dwelt in the castle a hundred and five years, and
maintained a great and fine house there, and went in and out of the
castle night and day, according to their will, so that the Serjeants
of the king which guarded the castle could not restrain them."
The canons, it would appear from this record, conducted themselves
somewhat turbulently and irregularly during these hundred and
five years, till they were finally ejected by King Withred, who
removed them to the church of St. Martin, in the town of Dover,
which he built for them. A fragment of the ruins of the town
priory is to be seen near the market-place in Dover. This ejectment
is held to have happened in the year 696. If the story be correct,
the church within the castle must have been erected previous to the
end of the seventh century. It might have been erected at a much
earlier period, when many of the Roman soldiers of Britain were
converts to *he Roman faith ; and here, upon that commanding rock
which Matthew Paris called " Clavis et Repagulum totius Regni,"
the very key and barrier of the whole kingdom, might the eagles
have vailed before the emblems of the religion of peace (Figs. 92,
96), and the mailed soldiers have laid down their shields and javelins
(Fig. 97) to mingle in that common worship which made the Roman
and the Barbarian equals.

It was a little before the commencement of a glorious corn-
harvest that we first saw Richborough. Descending from the high
fertile land of the Isle of Thanet, we passed Ebbefleet, the spot in
Pegwell Bay where tradition says Hengist and Horsa landed, to
carry war and rapine into the country. The coast here wears an
aspect of melancholy dreariness. To the east we looked back upon
the bold cliff of Ramsgate ; to the west, upon the noble promontory
of the South Foreland. But all the land space between these two
extremities of the bay is a vast flat, drained in every direction by
broad ditches, amidst which, in propitious seasons, thousands of
sheep find a luxuriant though coarse pasture. At low-water the
sea retires many furlongs from this flat shore ; and then the
fisherboy fills his basket with curious shells, which are here found

in great variety. When the tide has ebbed, a narrow stream may
be traced for a long distance through the sand, which, when the
salt wave has receded, still fills the little channel into which it
empties itself from its inland source. This is the river Stour, whose
main branch, flowing from Ashford by the old Roman Castle of
Chilham, and onward to Canterbury, forms the boundary of the
Isle of Thanet on the south-west ; and making a sudden bend
southerly to Sandwich, returns again in a northerly direction to
empty itself into its sea-channel in Pegwell Bay. The road crosses
the peninsula which is formed by this doubling of the river. At
about a mile to the west is a gentle hill crowned with a large mass
of low wall. At the distance of two or three miles wc distinctly
see that this is some remarkable object. It is not a lofty castle
of the middle ages, such as we sometimes look upon, with tower
and bastion crumbling into picturesque ruin ; but here, on the north
side, is a long line of wall, without a single aperture, devoid alike
of loophole or battlement, and seemingly standing there only to
support the broad masses of ivy which spread over its surface in
singular luxuriance. We take boat at a little ferry-house, at a
place called Saltpans. Leland, when he went to Richborough three
hundred years ago, found a hermit there ; and he says, " I had an-
tiquities of the heremite, the which is an industrious man." So say
we of the ferryman. He has small copper coins in abundance,
which tell what people have been hereabout. He rows us down the
little river for about three-quarters of a mile, and we are under the
walls of Richborough Castle (Fig. 99). This is indeed a mighty
monument of ages that are gone. Let us examine it with some-
what more than common attention.

Ascending the narrow road which passes the cottage built at the
foot of the bank, we reach some masses of wall which lie below the
regular line (Plan 98). Have these fallen from their original posi-
tion, or do they form an outwork connected with fragments which
also appear on the lower level of the slope ? This is a question not
very easy to decide from the appearance of the walls themselves.
Another question arises, upon which antiquarian writers have greatly
differed. Was there a fourth wall on the south-eastern side facing
the river ? It is believed by some that there was such a wall, and
that the castle or camp once formed a regular parallelogram. It is
difficult to reconcile this belief with the fact that the sea has been
'constantly retiring from Richborough, and that the little river was
undoubtedly once a noble estuary. Bede, who wrote his ' Ecclesi-
astical History' in the beginning of the eighth century, thus describes
the branch of the river which forms the Isle of Thanet, and whicn
now runs a petty brook from Richborough to Reculver : •" On the
east side of Kent is the Isle of Thanet, considerably large ; that is,
containing, according to the English way of reckoning, six hundred
families, divided from the other land by the river Wantsumu, which
is about three furlongs over, and fordable only in two places, for
both ends of it run into the sea." Passing by the fragments of
which we have spoken, we are under the north (strictly north-east)
wall — a wondrous work, calculated to impress us with a conviction
that the people who built it were not the petty labourers of an hour,
who were contented with temporary defences and frail resting-places.
The outer works upon the southern clitt of Dover, which were run
up during the war with Napoleon at a prodigious expense, are
crumbling and perishing, through the weakness of job and contract,
which could not endure for half a century. And here stand the
walls of Richborough, as they have stood for eighteen hundred years,
from twenty to thirty feet high, in some places with foundations five
feet below the earth, eleven or twelve feet thick at the base, with
their outer masonry in many parts as perfect as at the hour when
their courses of tiles and stones were first laid in beautiful regularity.
The northern wall is five hundred and sixty feet in length. From
the eastern end, for more than two-fifths of its whole length, it pre-
sents a surface almost wholly unbroken. It exhibits seven courses of
stone, each course about four feet thick, and the courses separated
each from the other by a double line of red or yellow tiles, each
tile being about an inch and a half in thickness. The entrance to
the camp through this north wall is very perfect, of the construc-
tion marked in the plan. This was called by the Romans the
Porta Principalis, but in after times the Postern-gate. We pass
through this entrance, and we are at once in the interior of the
Roma°n Castle. The area within the walls is a field of five acres
covered, when we saw it, with luxuriant beans, whose green pods
were scarcely yet shrivelled by the summer sun. Towards the
centre of the field, a little to the east of the postern-gate, was a
large space where the beans grew not. The area within the walls is
much higher in most places than the ground without ; and therefore
the walls present a far more imposing appearance on their outer
side. As we pass along the north wall to its western extremity, it

Chap. II. J

OLD ENGLAND.

ol

IS

becomes much more broken and dilapidated ; large fragments having
fallen from the top, which now presents a very irregular line. (Fig.
100.) It is considered that at the north-west and south-west angles
there were circular towers. The west wall is very much broken
down ; and it is held that at the opening (Plan 98) was the De-
cuman gate (the gate through which ten men could march abreast).
The south wall is considerably dilapidated ; and from the nature of
the ground is at present of much less length than the north wall.
Immense cavities present themselves in this wall, in which the
farmer deposits his ploughs and harrows, and the wandering gipsy
seeks shelter from the driving north-east rain. One of these cavities
in the south wall is forty-two feet long, as we roughly measured it.
and about five feet in height. The wall is in some places com-
pletely pierced through ; so that here is a long low arch, with fifteen
or eighteen feet of solid work, ten feet thick, above it, held up
almost entirely by the lateral cohesion. Nothing can be a greater
proof of the extraordinary solidity of the original work. From
.some very careful engravings of the external sides of the walls
o-iven in Kino's < Munimenta Antiqua,' we find that the same cavity
Mas to be seen in 1775.

Of the early importance of Richborough we have the most deci-
sive evidence. Bede, eleven hundred years ago, speaks of it as the
chief thing of note on the southern coast. Writing of Britain, he
says, " On the south it has the Belgic Gaul ; passing along whose
nearest shore there appears the city called Rutubi Portus, the which
port is now by the English nation corruptly called Reptacester :
the passage of the sea from Gesoriacum, the nearest shore of the
nation oAhe Morini, being fifty miles, or, as some write, four hun-
dred and fifty furlongs." Camden thus describes the changes in the
name of this celebrated place : " On the south side of the mouth of
Wantsum (which they imagine has changed its channel), and over
aq-ainst the island was a city, called by Ptolemy, Rhutupiae ; by
Tacitus, Portus Trutulensis, for Rhutupensis, if B. Rhenanus's con-
jecture hold good ; by Antoninus, Rhitupis Portus ; by Ammianus,
Rhutupiaa statio ; by Orosius, the port and city of Rhutubus ; by the
Saxons (according to Bede), Reptacester, and by others Ruptimuth ;
by Alfred of Beverley, Richberge ; and at this day Richborrow :
thus has time sported in varying one and the same name." It is
unnecessary for us here to enter into the question whether Rhutupiaa
was Richborough, or Sandwich, or Stonor. The earlier antiquaries,
Leland, Lambarde, Camden, decide, as they well might, that the
great Roman Castle of Richborough was the key of that haven
which Juvenal has celebrated for its oysters (Sat. iv), and Lucan
for its stormy seas (lib. vi.). Our readers, we think, will prefer,
to such a dissertation, that most curious description of the place
which we find in Leland's ' Itinerary ' — a description that has been
strangely neglected by most modern topographers : " Ratesburgh,
otherwise Richeboro, was, or ever the river of Sture did turn his
bottom or old canal, within the Isle of Thanet ; and by likelihood
the main sea came to the very foot of the castle. The main sea is
now off of it a mile, by reason of woze (ooze) that hath there
swollen up. The site of the old town or castle is wonderful fair
upon a hill. The walls, the which remain there yet, be in compass
almost as much as the Tower of London. They have been very
hieh, thick, strong, and well embattled. The matter of them is
flint, marvellous and long bricks, white and red after the Britons'
fashion. The cement was made of sea-sand and small pebble.
There is a great likelihood that the goodly hill about the castle,
and especially to Sandwich-ward, hath been well inhabited. Corn
grovveth on the hill in marvellous plenty ; and in going to plough
there hath, out of mind, been found, and now is, more antiquities of
Roman money that in any place else of England. Surely reason
speaketh that this should be Rutupinum. For besides that the name
somewhat toucheth, the very near passage from Clyves, or Cales,
was to Ratesburgh, and now is to Sandwich, the which is about a
mile off ; though now Sandwich be not celebrated because of Good-
win Sands and the decay of the haven. There is a good flight
shot off from Ratesburgh, towards Sandwich, a great dike, cast in
a round compass, as it had been for fence of men of war. The
compass of the ground within is not much above an acre, and it is
very hollow by casting up the earth. They call the place there
Lytleborough. Within the castle is a little parish-church of St.
Augustine, and an hermitage. I had antiquities of the hermit,
the which is an industrious man. Not far from the hermitage is
a cave where men have sought and digged for treasure. I saw it by
candle within, and there were conies (rabbits). It was so strait,
that I had no mind to creep far in. In the north side of the Castle
is a head in the wall, now sore defaced with weather. They call it
Queen Bertha Head. Near to that place, hard by the wall, was a
pot of R<?r,nan money found."

In the bean-field within the walls of Richborough there was a
space where no beans grew, which we could not approach without
trampling down the thick crop. We knew what was the cause of
that patch of unfertility. We had learnt from the work of Mr.
King, who had derived his information from Mr. Boys, the local
historian of Sandwich, that there was, " at the depth of a few feet,
between the soil and rubbish, a solid regular platform, one hundred
and forty-fcur in length, and a hundred and four feet in breadth,
being a most compact mass of masonry composed of flint stones and
strong coarse mortar." This great platform, " as hard and entire
in every part as a solid rock," is pronounced by King to have been
" the great parade, or Augurale, belonging to the Pra3torium, where
was the Sacellum for the eagles and ensigns, and where the sacrifices
were offered." But upon this platform is placed a second compact
mass of masonry, rising nearly five feet above the lower mass, in the
form of a cross, very narrow in the longer part, which extends from
the south to the north (or, to speak more correctly, from the south-
west to the north-east), but in the shorter transverse of the cross,
which is forty-six feet in length, having a breadth of twenty-two
feet. This cross, according to King, was the site of the Sacellum.
Half a century ago was this platform dug about and under, and
brass and lead, and broken vessels were found, and a curious little
bronze figure of a Roman soldier playing upon the bagpipes (Fig.
102). Again has antiquarian curiosity been set to work, and
labourers are now digging and delving on the edge of the platform,
and breaking their tools against the iron concrete. The workmen
have found a passage along the south and north sides of the platform,
and have penetrated, under the platform, to walls upon which it is
supposed to rest, whose foundations are laid twenty-eight feet lower.
Some fragments of pottery have been found in this last excavation,
and the explorers expect to break through the walls upon which the
platform rests, and find a chamber. It may be so. Looking at the
greater height of the ground within the walls, compared with the
height without, we are inclined to believe that this platform, which
is five feet in depth, was the open basement of some public building
in the Roman time. To what purpose it was applied in the Christian
period, whether of Rome or Britain, we think there can be no doubt.
The traveller who looked upon it three centuries ago tells us dis-
tinctly, " within the Castle is a little parish-church of St. Augustine,
and an hermitage." When Camden saw the place, nearly a century
after Leland, the little parish-church was gone. He found no
hermitage there, and no hermit to show him antiquities. He says,
" To teach us that cities die as well as men, it is at this day a corn-
field, wherein when the corn is grown up one may observe the
draughts of streets crossing one another, for where they have gone
the corn is thinner. . . . Nothing now remains but some ruinous
walls of a square tower cemented with a sort of sand extremely
binding." He also says that the crossings of the streets are com-
monly called St. Augustine's Cross. There is certainly more con-
fusion in this description of crossings as one cross. To us it appears
more than probable that the " little parish-church of St. Augustine,"
which Leland saw, had this cross for its foundation, and that when
this church was swept away — when the hermit who dwelt there,
and there pursued his solitary worship, fell upon evil times — the
cross, with a few crumbling walls, proclaimed where the little parish
church had stood, and that this was then called St. Augustine's
Cross (Fig. 191). The cross is decidedly of a later age than the
platform ; the masonry is far less regular and compact. Camden,
continuing the history of Richborough after the Romans, says, " This
Rutupiae flourished likewise after the coming in of the Saxons, for
authors tell us it was the palace of Ethelbert, king of Kent, and Bede
honours it with the name of a city." The belief that the palace of
Ethelbert was upon this commanding elevation, so strengthened by
art, full no doubt of remains of Roman magnificence, the key of the
broad river which allowed an ample passage for ships of burthen from
the Channel to the estuary of the Thames, is a rational belief. But
Lambarde says of Richborough, " Whether it were that palace of
King Ethelbert from whence he went to entertain Augustine, he that
shall advisedly read the twenty-fifth chapter of Beda his first book shall
have just cause to doubt; forasmuch as he showeth manifestly that
the king came from his palace into the Isle of Thanet to Augustine,
and Leland saith that Richborough was then within Thanet, although
that since that time the water has changed its old course and shut
it clean out of the island." This is a refinement in the old
Kentish topographer which will scarcely outweigh the general
fitness of Richborough for the palace of the Saxon king. The
twenty-fifth chapter of Bede is indeed worth reading " advisedly ;"
but not to settle this minute point of local antiquarianism. We
have given Bede's description of the Isle of Thanet, in which island,
he says, "landed the servant of our Lord, Augustine, and his com-

106.— Walls, Pevensey.

105.— General. View of the Ruins of Pevensey Castle. ,

10D. — Supposed Saxon Keep, Pevensey.

Tj

106.— Plan of Pevensey Castle.

110.— Sally-rort, Pevensey.

32

111.— Norman Keep, Pevensey.

112.— Interior of Norman Tower, Pevensey.

115.— Rome— a fragment after Piranesi.

114.— Conflict between Romans and Barbarians. From the Arch of Trajan-

116.— Roman Victory.

6

1

n

o

o

&

IS

£

113— The Thames at Coway Stakes.

1 1 9.— Coin of CUudius, representing his British Triumph. From
the British Museum.

121.— Coin of Cunobelinus.

No. 5.

I20.-Coin of Claudius. Actual size. Gold. Weight 122 Grains. In Brit. Mus

118.— Claudius.— From a Copper Coir
in the British Museum.

33

34

OLD ENGLAND.

[Book I.

panions, being as i . is reported near forty men." The king, according
to Bede's narrative, hearing of their arrival, and the nature of their
mission, ordered them to stay in the island, where they should be
furnished with all necessaries. " Some days after, the king came
into the island, and, sitting in the open air, ordered Augustine and
his companions to be brought into his presence. For he had taken
precaution that they should not come to him in any house, according
to the ancient superstition, lest, if they had any magical arts, they
might at their coming impose upon and get the better of him. But
they came furnished with divine virtue, not with disabolical, bearing
a silver cross for their banner, and the image of our Lord and
Saviour painted on a board, and, singing the litany, offered up
their prayers to the Lord for their own, and the eternal salvation of
those to whom they were come. Having, pursuant to the king's
commands, after sitting down, preached to him and all his attendants
there present the Word of Life ; he answered thus : ' Your words
and promises are very taking, but in regard that they are new and
uncertain, I cannot approve of them, forsaking that which I have
so long followed with the whole English nation. But because you
are come from far into my kingdom, and, as I conceive, are desirous
to impart to us those things which you believe to be true, and most
beneficial, we will not molest you, but rather give you favourable
entertainment, and take care to supply you with your necessary
sustenance ; nor do we forbid you by preaching to gain as many as
you can to your religion.' Accordingly he gave them a dwelling-
place in the city of Canterbury, which was the metropolis of all his
dominions, and pursuant to his promise, besides allowing them their
diet, permitted them to preach." This memorable transaction, told
with such touching simplicity a little more than a century after its
occurrence, by the illustrious monk of Jarrow, imparts a far deeper
interest to this locality than its Roman memorials.

John Twyne, a celebrated antiquarian who lived in the sixteenth
century, says, " There be right credible persons yet living that have
often seen not only small boats but vessels of good burden to pass
to and fro upon the Wantsum, where now the water, especially
towards the west, is clean excluded ; and there be apparent marks
that Sarr, where they now go over, was a proper haven." Those
who have traversed the low country which lies between Reculver
and Sandwich — a task not very easily to be accomplished unless the
pedestrian can leap the broad ditches which drain the marsh — will
readily comprehend how, in the course of eighteen centuries, the
great estuary may have dwindled into a petty rill. There is nothing
in the nature of the country to prevent one believing that a large
arm of the sea cut off the Isle of Thanet from the mainland of Kent,
and that this channel, in the time of the Romans, formed the readiest
passage from the coast of Gaul to London. The late Mr. John
Rickman has well described the course of communication between
the Continent and Britain : — " The Roman roads in Kent deserve
notice as having been planned with an intention of greater scope
than (within my knowledge) has been ascribed to them. The
nearest and middle harbour of access from Gaul was evidently
Dover ; but whenever the wind was unfavourable for a direct
passage, further recourse became desirable, and from Lemanis
(Lymne, near Hythe) and Ritupaa (Richborough, near Sandwich)
branch roads were made, joining the Dover road at Canterbury ; so
that a dispatch-boat, by sailing from the windward port, or steering for
the leeward of these three ports, could seldom fail of a ready passage
to or from the Continent ; and especially it is remarkable that the
prevailing south-west wind (with this advantage) permitted a direct
passage from Gessoriacum or Itius (Boulogne or Witsand) to
RitupaB, in effect to London ; the Wantsum channel then and long
after existing within the Isle of Thanet to Regulbium (Reculver)
on the Thames, being that by winch early navigation was sheltered
in its access to the British metropolis. Indeed the first paragraph
of the Itinerary of Antoninus gives the reputed distance from
Gessoriacum to RitupaB, as if more important or more in use than
the shorter passage to Dover." (' Archaeologia,' vol. xxviii.) With
this explanation we can comprehend the advantage of the Roman
position at Reculver. Through this broad channel of the Wantsum
the Roman vessels from Boulogne sailed direct into the Thames,
without going round the North Foreland ; and the entrance to the
estuary was defended by the great Castle of Richborough at the one
end, and by the lesser Castle of Reculver at the other. The Roman
remains still existing at Reculver are less interesting than those at
Richborough, chiefly because they are of less magnitude and are more
dilapidated. Very close to the ruins of the ancient church, whose
spires were once held in such ieverence that ships entering the Thames
were wont to lower their top sails as they passed (Fig. 1 03), is an area,
now partly under the plough and partly a kitchen garden. It is
somewhat elevated above the surrounding fields ; and, descending a

little distance to the west of the ruined church, we are under the
Roman wall, which still stands up on the western and southern
sides with its layers of flat stone and concrete, defying the dripping
rain and the insidious ivy. The castle stood upon a natural rising
ground, beneath which still flows the thread-like stream of the river
Stour or Wantsum. Although it was once the key of the northern
mouth of the great estuary, it did not overhang the sea on the
northern cliff, as the old church ruin now hangs. When the
legions were here encamped, it stood far away from the dashing of
the northern tide, which for many generations has been here
invading the land with an irresistible power. Century after century
has the wave been gnawing at this cliff; and, as successive portions
have fallen, the bare sides have presented human bones, and coins,
and fragments of pottery, and tessellated pavements, which told that
man had been here, with his comforts and luxuries around him, long
before Ethelbert was laid beneath the floor of the Saxon church,
upon whose ruins the sister spires of the Norman rose, themselves
to be a ruin, now preserved only as a sea-mark. Reculver is a
memorable example of the changes produced in a short period of
three centuries. Leland's description of the place is scarcely credible
to those who have stood beneath these spires, on the very margin
of the sea, and have looked over the low ruined wall of the once
splendid choir, upon the fishing-boats rocking in the tide beneath : —
" Reculver is now scarce half a mile from the shore." In another
place — " Reculver standeth within a quarter of a mile or a little
more from the sea-side. The town at this time is but village-like ;
sometime where as the parish church is now was a faire and a great
abbey, and Brightwald, Archbishop of Canterbury, was of that house.
The old building of the church of the abbey remaineth, having two
goodly spiring steeples. In the entering of the choir is one of the
fairest and the most ancient cross that ever I saw, nine feet, as I
guess, in height ; it standeth like a fair column." Long ago has the
cross perished, with its curiously-wrought carvings and its painted
images ; and so has perished the " very ancient book of the Evan-
geles," which Leland also describes. The Romans have left more
durable traces of their existence at Reculver than the ministers of
religion, who here, for centuries, had sung the daily praises of Him
wdio delivereth out of their distress those " that go dowrn to the sea
in ships, and occupy their business in great waters." The change
in names of places sometimes tells the story of their material changes.
The Regulbium of the Romans became the Raculfcester of the
Saxons, cester indicating a camp ; that name changes when the
camp has perished, and the great abbey is flourishing, to Raculf-
minster ; the camp and the abbey have both perished, and we have
come back to the Latin Regulbium, in its Anglicized form of
Reculver. Some fiercer destruction even than that which swept awayr
the abbey probably fell upon the Roman city. Gibson, speaking of
the coins and jewellery which have been found at various times at
Reculver, says, " These they find here in such great quantities that
we must needs conclude it to have been a place heretofore of great
extent, and very populous, and that it has one time or other under-
went some great devastation, either by war or fire, or both. I think
I may be confident of the latter, there being many patterns found
of metals run together." The antiquities of Regulbium are fully
described in the elegant Latin treatise of Dr. Battely, ' Antiquitates
Rutupinae,' 1711.

After the Romans had established a permanent occupation of
Britain the defence of the coast was reduced to a system. Wher-
ever the Romans conquered, they organized, and by their wise
arrangements became preservers and benefactors. It is generally
supposed that Richborough and Reculver were Roman forts as
early as the time of Claudius, but that other castles on the coast
were of later date, being for defence against the Saxon pirates of
the third century. At this period there was a high military officer
called Comes Littoris Saxonici per Britanniam, the Count of the
Saxon Shore in Britain. He was the commander of all the castles
and garrisons on the coast of Norfolk, of Essex, of Kent, of Sussex,
and of Hampshire. These coasts formed the Saxon Shore. Sir
Francis Palgrave thinks that the name was derived from the Saxons
havin" already here made settlements. Others believe that the
Saxon Shore was so called from its being peculiarly exposed to the
ravages of the Saxons, to resist whom the great castles which stood
upon this shore were built or garrisoned. These castles were nine
in number ; and, although in one or two particulars there are
differences of opinion as to their sites, the statement of Horsley ig
for the most part admitted to be correct.

On the Norfolk coast there were two forts. Branodunum (Bran-
caster, about four miles from Burnham Market) overlooked the

Chap. II.]

OLD ENGLAND.

35

marshes. The station is well defined by the remains which are
constantly dug up. Gariannonum (Burgh, in Suffolk, situated at
the junction of the Waveney and the Yare) is a noble ruin. Two
engravings of its walls will be found at page 36 (Figs. 129, 130).
These walls, which are almost fourteen feet high and nine thick,
inclose on three sides an area forming nearly a regular parallelogram,
six hundred and forty-two feet long by four hundred feet broad.
The western boundary is now formed by the river Waveney, it being
supposed, and indeed almost proved by a very ancient map, that the
west side of the station was once defended by the sea. If there was
ever a west wall, which is much to be doubted, it has now entirely
disappeared. The east wall is almost perfect, as shown in our
engravings. The north and south walls are in great part ruinous.
We transcribe from the 'Penny Cyclopaedia' a brief description
of these walls, written by an architect v. ho visited the place, and
surveyed it with great care : — " The whole area of the inclosure
was about four acres and three-quarters. The walls are of rubble
masonry, faced with alternate courses of bricks and flints : and on
the tops of the towers, which are attached to the walls, are holes
two feet in diameter and two feet deep, supposed to have been
intended for the insertion of temporary watch-towers, probably of
wood. On the east side the four circular towers are fourteen feet
in diameter. Two of them are placed at the angles, where the
walls are rounded, and two at equal di>tances from the angles ; an
opening has been left in the centre of the wall, which is considered
by Mr. King to be the Porta Decumana, but by Mr. Ives the Porta
Preetoria. The north and south sides are also defended by towers
of rubble masonry. The foundation, on which the Romans built
these walls was a thick bed of chalk lime, well rammed down, and
the whole covered with a layer of earth and sand, to harden the
mass and exclude the water : this was covered with two-inch oak
plank placed transversely on the foundation, and over this was a
bed of coarse mortar, on which w? roughly spread the first layer
of stones. The mortar appears to be composed of lime and coarse
sand, unsifted, mixed with gravel and small pebbles or shingle.
Mr. Ives thinks they used hot grouting, which will account for the
tenacity of the mortar. The bricks at Burgh Castle are of a fine red
colour and a very close texture — they are one foot and a half long,
one foot broad, and one inch and a half thick."

In Essex there was one fort, Othona (Ithanchester, not far from
Maiden), over which the sea now flows.

In Kent there were four castles thus garrisoned and commanded :
Regulbium (Reculver), Ritupae (Richborough), Dubrae (Dover),
and Lemanse (Lymne). The remains of this last of the Kentish
fortresses are now very inconsiderable. Leland, however, thus
describes it : — " Lymme, hill of, or Lyme, was some time a famous
haven, and good for ships, that might come to the foot of the hill.
[The river Limene, or Rother, formerly ran beneath the hill.]
The place is yet called Shipway and Old Haven ; farther, at this
day the Lord of the Five Ports keepeth his principal court a little
by east from Lymme Hill. There remaineth at this day the ruins
of a strong fortress of the Britons hanging on the hill, and coining
down to the very foot. The compass of the fortress seemeth to be
ten acres. The old walls are made of Britons' bricks, veiy large,
and great flint, set together almost indissolubly with mortars made
of small pebble. The walls be very thick, and in the west end of
the castle appeareth the base of an old tower. About this castle
in time of mind were found antiquities of money of the Romans.
There went from Lymme to Canterbury a street fair-paved, whereof
of this day it is called Stony Street. It is the straightest that ever
I saw, and toward Canterbury-ward the pavement continually
appeareth for four or five miles." Such is Leland's account, three
centuries ago, of a ruin which since that period has more rapidly
perished from the subsidence of the soil upon which it stands.
Lambarde, who wrote half a century after Leland, says of Lymme,
" They affirm that the water forsaking them by little and little,
decay and solitude came at the length upon the place." There is
the gate-house of a later building than the Roman walls still
remaining, built of large bricks and flints, as the tower of the
neighbouring church is built. These may contain some of the
ancient materials.

Anderida, the sea-fort of Sussex, is held by some to be Hastings,
by others to be East Bourn. It is not our purpose to enter upon
any controversial discussion of such matters; but it appears to us
that Pevensey, one of the most remarkable castles in our country,
which the Roman, and the Saxon, and the Norman, had one after
the other garrisoned and fortified,— the ruins of each occupier
themselves telling such a tale of "mutability" as one spot has
seldom told,— was as likely to have been the Anderida of the Saxon
shore, as Hastings and East Bourn, between which it is situated.

Be that as it may, we proceed briefly to describe this remarkable
ruin. The village of Pevensey is about equidistant from Bexhill
and East Bourn. The approach to it from either place is as drear\
as can well be imagined, over a vast marsh, with nothing to relieve
the prospect seaward but the ugly Martello towers, which on this
coast are stuck so thick that a second William of Normandy would
scarcely attempt a landing. They now guard the shore, not against
Williams and Napoleons, but against those who invade the land
with scheidam and brandy. Rising gently out of this flat ground
we see the Castle of Pevensey. It is, with very slight difference-,
situated exactly as Richborough is situated — a marsh from which the
sea has receded, a cliff of moderate height rising out of the marsh,
a little stream beneath the cliff. Here, as at Richborough, have
the Roman galleys anchored ; sheltered by the bold promontory
of Beachy Head from the south-west gales, and secured from the
attacks of pirates by the garrison who guarded those walls. We
ascend the cliff from the village, and enter the area within the
walls at the opening on the east (Plan 106). The external appearance
of the gate by which we enter is shown in Fig. 107. This is held
to have been the Praetorian Gate. The external architecture of the
gate and of the walls has evidently undergone great alteration since
the Roman period. In some parts we have the herring-bone work
of the Saxon, and the arch of the Norman ; but the Roman has left
his mark indelibly on the whole of these external walls, in the
regular courses of brick which form the bond of the stone and
rubble, which chiefly constitute the mighty mass. The external
towers, which are indicated on the plan, are quite solid : some of
these have been undermined and have fallen, but others have been
carefully buttressed and otherwise repaired in very modern times
(Fig. 108). Having passed into the area by the east gate, we cross
in the direction of the dotted line to the south-western or Decuman
Gate. This is very perfect, having a tower on each side. Going
without the walls at this point, and scrambling beneath them to the
south, we can well understand how the fort stood proudly above the
low shore when the sea almost washed its walls. The ruin on this
side is highly picturesque, large masses of the original wall having
fallen (Fig. 105). On the north side was a few years since a
fragment of a supposed Saxon keep, held to be an addition to the
original Roman Castrum (Fig. 109). But the most important and
interesting adaptation to another period of the. Roman Pevensey is
the Norman keep, the form of which is indicated on the Plan 106,
at the south-east, and which was evidently fitted upon the original
Roman wall so as to form the coast defence on that side. We
purposely reserve any minute description of this very remarkable
part of the ruin for another period. The ponderous walls of the
Roman dominion are almost merged in the greater interest of the
moated keep of the Norman conquest. It will be sufficient for us
here to present engravings of the Norman works (Figs. 110, 111,
112), reserving their description for another Book. The area
within the Roman walls of Pevensey is seven acres. The irregular
form of the walls would indicate that here was a British stronghold
before the Roman castle.

The one Roman sea-fort of Hampshire, Portus Adurnus (Ports-
mouth), offers a striking contrast to the decay and solitude which
prevail, with the exception of Dover, in all the other forts of the
Saxon shore.

In noticing the two descents of Caesar upon Britain (page 26) we
said, " From the nature of his inroad into the country, no monuments
exist, or could have existed, to attest his progress." But there is
a monument, if so it may be called, still existing, which furnishes
evidence of the systematic resistance which was made to his progress.
Bede, writing at the beginning of the eighth century, after describing
with his wonted brevity the battle in which Caesar in his second
invasion put the Britons to flight, says, " Thence he proceeded to
the river Thames, which is said to be fordable only in one place.
An immense multitude of the enemy had posted themselves on the
farthest side of the river, under the conduct of Cassibelan, and
fenced the bank of the river and almost all the ford under water
with sharp stakes, the remains of which stakes are to be there seen
to this day, and they appear to the beholders to be about the
thickness of a man's thigh, and being cased with lead, remain
immoveable, fixed in the bottom of the river." Camden, writing
nine centuries after Bede, whose account he quotes, fixes this
remarkable ford of the Thames near Oatlands : "For this was the
only place in the Thames formerly fordable, and that too not
without great difficulty, which the Britons themselves in a manner
pointed out to him [Caesar] ; for on the other side of the river a
stron"- body of the British had planted themselves, and die bank

F 2

36

131.— "Wall of Severus, on the Sandstone Quarries, Denton Dean, near Newcastle-upon-Tyne

133. — Roman Citizen.

Eg-^SSIS

-^m^^

132.— Wall of Severus, near Housestead, Northumberland.

134.— Tomb of a young Roman Physician.

136. — Roman Soldier

I37i— Roman Highway on the Banks of the Tiber

135.— Roman Image of Victory,

37

38

OLD ENGLAND.

[Be ok L

itself was fenced with sharp stakes driven into the ground, and some
of the same sort were fastened under water." Camden here adopts
Caasar's own words : " Ripa autem erat acutis sudibus praefixis
munita, ejusdemque generis sub aqua defixae sudes flumine tege-
bantur" (' De Bell. Gal.' lib. v.). Our fine old topographer is
singularly energetic in fixing the place of Caesar's passage : " It is
impossible I should be mistaken in the place, because here the river
is scarce six foot deep ; and the place at this day, from those stakes,
is called Coway Stakes ; to which we may add that Csesar makes the
bounds of Cassivelan, where he fixes this his passage, to be about
eighty miles distant from that sea which washes the east part of
Kent, where he landed : now this ford we speak of is at the same
distance from the sea ; and I am the first, that I know of, who has
mentioned, and settled it in its proper place." It is a rational
belief of the English antiquaries that there was a great British road
from Richborough to Canterbury, and thence to London. Caesar's
formidable enemy, Cassivelaunus, had retreated in strong force to
the north bank of the Thames ; and Cassar speaks of the river as
dividing the territories of that chieftain from the maritime states.
If we look upon the map of England, we shall see how direct a
march it was from Canterbury to Oatlands near Walton, without
following the course of the river above London. Crossing at this
place, Caesar would march direct, turning to the north, upon the
capital of Cassivelaunus, — Verulam, or Cassiobury. Our engraving
(Fig. 113) represents the peaceful river gliding amidst low wooded
banks, disturbed only by the slow barge as it is dragged along its
stream. At the bend of the river are to this hour these celebrated
stakes. They were minutely described in 1735, in a paper read to
the Society of Antiquaries, by Mr. Samuel Gale : "As to the wood
of these stakes, it proves its own antiquity, being by its long
duration under the water so consolidated as to resemble ebony, and
will admit of a polish, and is not in the least rotted. It is evident
from the exterior grain of the wood that the stakes were the entire
bodies of young oak-trees, there not being the least appearance of
any mark of any tool to be seen upon the whole circumference, and
if we allow in our calculation for the gradual increase of growth
towards its end, where fixed in the bed of the river, the stakes, I
think, will exactly answer the thickness of a man's thigh, as
described by Bede ; but whether they were covered with lead at the
ends fixed in the bottom of the river, is a particular I could not
learn ; but the last part of Bede's description is certainly just, that
they are immoveable, and remain so to this day.'' Mr. Gale adds,
that since stating that the stakes were immoveable, one had been
weighed up, entire, between two loaded barges, at the time of a
great flood.

Gibson, the editor of Camden, confirms the strong belief of his
author that at Coway Stakes was the ford of Cassar, by the following
observations : — " Not far from hence upon the Thames is Walton,
in which parish is a great camp of about twelve acres, single work,
and oblong. There is a road lies through it, and it is probable that
Walton takes its name from this remarkable vallum." Mr. Gale,
in his paper in the ' Archaeologia,' mentions " a large Roman encamp-
ment up in the country directly southward, about a mile and a half
distant from the ford, and pointing to it." Here he imagines Caesar
himself entrenched. When we consider that the Romans occupied
Britain for more than four centuries, it is extremely hazardous to
attempt to fix an exact date to any of their works. Encampments
such as these are memorials of defence after defence which the
invader threw up against the persevering hostility of the native
tribes, or native defences from which the Britons were driven out.
For ninety-seven years after the second expedition of Caesar, the
country remained at peace with Rome. Augustus (Fig. 117)
threatened an invasion ; but his prudence told him that he could
not enforce the payment of tribute without expensive legions. The
British princes made oblations in the Capitol ; and, according to
Strabo, " rendered almost the whole island intimate and familiar to
the Romans." Cunobelinus (Fig. 121), the Cymbeline of Shakspere,
was brought up, according to the chroniclers, at the court of
Augustus. Succeeding emperors left the Britons in the quiet
advancement of their civilization, until Claudius (Fig. 118) was
stirred up to the hazard of an invasion. In the sonorous prose of
Milton — " He, who waited ready with a huge preparation, as if not
safe enough amidst the flower of all his Romans, like a great Eastern
king with armed elephants marches through Gallia. So full of
peril was tins enterprise esteemed as not without all this equipage
and stronger terrors than Roman armies, to meet the native and
the naked British valour defending their country." (Fig. 114.)
The genius of Roman victory inscribed the name of Claudius with
the addition of Britannicus (Fig. 116). The coins of Claudius still
bear the symbols of his British triumphs (Figs. 119, 120). But

the country was not yet wholly won. Then came the glorious
resistance of Caractacus, which Tacitus has immortalized. Then
came the fierce contests between the Roman invaders and the votaries
of the native religion, which the same historian has so glowingly
described in his account of the attack of Suetonius upon the island
of Mona : — " On the shore stood a line of very diversified appearance ;
there were armed men in dense array, and women running amid
them like furies, who, in gloomy attire, and with loose hair hanging
down, carried torches before them. Around were Druids, who,
pouring forth curses and lifting up their hands to heaven, struck
terror by the novelty of their appearance into the hearts of the
soldiers, who, as if they had lost the use of their limbs, exposed them-
selves motionless to the stroke of the enemy. At last, moved by the
exhortations of their leader, and stimulating one another to despise
a band of women and frantic priests, they make their onset, over-
throw their opponents, and involve them in the flames which they
had themselves kindled. A garrison was afterwards placed among
the vanquished ; and the groves consecrated to their cruel supersti-
tions were cut down." Then came the terrible revolt of Boadicea
or Bonduca, — a merciless rising, followed by a bloody revenge.
Beaumont and Fletcher have well dramatized the spirit of this
heroic woman : —

" Ye powerful gods of Britain, hear our prayers !
Hear us, ye great revengers ! and this day-
Take pity from our swords, doubt from our valours ;
Double the sad remembrance of our wrongs
In every breast ; the vengeance due to these
Make infinite and endless ! On our pikes
This day pale Terror sit, horrors and ruins
Upon our executions ; claps of thunder
Hang on our armed carts ; and 'fore our troops
Despair and Death. Shame beyond these attend 'em !
Rise from the dust, ye relics of the dead,
"Whose noble deeds our holy Druids sing :
Oh, rise, yo valiant bones ! let not base earth
Oppress your honours, whilst the pride of Home
Treads on your stocks, and wipes out all your stories !"

Bonduca.

The Roman dominion in Britain nearly perished in this revolt.
Partial tranquillity was secured, in subsequent years of mildness
and forbearance, towards the conquered tribes. Vespasian extended
the conquests ; Agricola completed them in South Britain. His
possessions in Caledonia were, however, speedily lost. But the
hardy people of the North were driven back in the reign of Anto-
ninus Pius. Then first appeared on the Roman money the graceful
figure of Britannia calmly resting on her shield (Fig. 122), which
seventeen centuries afterwards has been made familiar tc ourselves
in the coined money of our own generation. Let us pause awhile
to view one of the great Roman cities which is held to belong to a
very early period of their dominion in England.

In 1837 a plan was exhibited to the Society of Antiquaries,
reduced from a survey made in 1835, by students of the senior
department of the Royal Military College at Sandhurst, of a portion
of the Roman road from London to Bath. The survey commences
close by Staines ; at which place, near the pillar which marks the
extent of the jurisdiction of the city of London, the line of road is
held to have crossed. the Thames. Below Staines, opposite to
Laleham, there are the remains of encampments ; and these again
are in the immediate neighbourhood of the ford at which Cassar
crossed the Thames. All the country here about, then, is full of
associations with the conquerors of the world ; and thus, when the
"contemplative man" is throwing his fly or watching his float in
the gentle waters between Staines and Walton, he may here find a
local theme upon which his reveries may fruitfully rest. The more
active pedestrian may follow this Roman road, thus recently mapped
out, through populous places and wild solitudes, into a country
little traversed in modern times ; but, like all unhackneyed ways,
full of interest to the lover of nature. The course of the road leads
over the east end of the beautiful table-land known as Englefield
Green; then through the yard of the well-known Wheatsheaf Inn,
at Virginia Water ; and, crossing the artificial lake, ascends the
hill, close by the tower called the Belvidere. In Windsor Park
the line is for some time lost ; but it is extremely well defined at a
point near the Sunning Hill road, where vast quantities of Roman
pottery and bricks have been discovered. It continues towards
Bagshot, where, at a place called Duke's Hill, its westerly direction
suddenly terminates, and it proceeds considerably to the northward.
Here, in 1783, many fragments of Roman pottery were discovered.
I The Roman road ascends the plain of Easthampstead, sending out a

CilAP. II. |

OLD ENGLAND.

39

lateral branch which runs close to well-known places within the
ancient limits of Windsor Forest, called Wickham Bushes and
Caesar's Camp. "We remember this vast sandy region before it was
covered with fir plantations ; and in these solitary hills, where the
eye for miles could rest upon nothing but barren heath, we have
listened with the wonder of boyhood to the vague traditions of past
a"-es, in which the marvels of history are made more marvellous.
Caesar's Camp is thus described by Mr. Handasyd, in a letter to the
Society of Antiquaries, in 1783:— "At the extremity of a long
range of hills is situated a large camp, known by the name of
Ccesar's Camp, which is but slightly noticed by Dr. Stukeley, nor is
any particular mention made of it in any account I have hitherto
seen. In it is a hollow, which has a thick layer of coarse gravel
all round it, and seems to have been made to contain rain water.
At not half a mile from the camp stand a vast number of thorn
bushes, some of a very large size (known by the name of Wickham
Bushes), bearing on their ragged branches and large contorted stems
evident marks of extreme age, yet in all probability these are but
the successors of a race long since extinct. The inhabitants of the
neighbourhood have a tradition that here formerly stood a town,
but that Julius Cfesar, whom they magnify to a giant (for stories
lose nothing by telling), with his associates laying the country
waste, the poor inhabitants were obliged to fly, and seek an asylum
in the valley beneath." As we proceed along the road approaching
Finchhampstead, we find the object of our search, sometimes easily
traced and sometimes continuously lost, bearing the name of the
Devil's Highway. At length the line crosses the Loddon, at the
northern extremity of Strathfieldsaye (Strathfield being the field of
the Strat, Street, or Road), the estate which a grateful nation
bestowed upon the Duke of Wellington ; through which park it
passes till it terminates at the parish church of Silchester. This
is the line which the students of the Military College surveyed.*
The survey has gone far to establish two disputed points — the
situation of the Roman Pontes, and whether Silchester should be
identified with Vindonum or Calleva. A very able correspondent
of the Society of Antiquaries, Mr. Kempe, thus observes upon the
value of the labours of the students of the Military College : — '; The
survey has effected a material correction of Horsley, for it shows
that the station Pontes, which lie places at Old Windsor, and for
which so many different places have been assigned by the learned
'-.] Roman topography, must have been where the Roman road

from London crossed the Thames at Staines

The line of road presents no place for the chief city of the
Attrebates until it arrives at the walls of Silchester. Is this, then,
really the Calleva Attrebatum ? The distance between Pontes and
Calleva, according to the Itinerary [of Antoninus], is twenty-two
miles ; by the Survey, the distance between Staines and Silchester
is twenty-six ; a conformity as near as can be required, for neither
the length of the Roman mile nor the mode of measuring it agreed
precisely with ours." Having led our reader to the eastern
entrance of this ancient city, we will endeavour to describe what he
will find there to reward his pilgrimage. Let us tell him, however,
that he may reach Silchester by an easier route than over the
straight line of the Roman Highway. It is about seven miles
from Basingstoke, and ten from Reading : to either of which
places he may move rapidly from London, by the South Western
or the Great Western Railway.

If we have walked dreamingly along the narrow lanes whose
hedge-rows shut out any distant prospect, we may be under the
eastern walls of Silchester before we are aware that any remarkable
object is in our neighbourhood. We see at length a church, and
we ascend a pretty steep bank to reach the churchyard. The
churchyard wall is something very different from ordinary walls — a
thick mass of mortar and stone, through which a way seems to have
been forced to give room for the little gates that admit us to the
region of grassy graves. A quiet spot is this churchyard ; and we
wonder where the tenants of the sod have come from. There is
one sole farmhouse near the church ; an ancient farmhouse with
gabled roofs that tell of old days of comfort and hospitality. The
church, too, is a building of interest, because of some antiquity ;
and there are in the churchyard two very ancient Christian tomb-
stones of chivalrous times, when the sword, strange contradiction,
was an emblem of the cross. But these are modern things compared
with the remains of which we are in search. We pass through the
churchyard into an open space, where the farmer's ricks tell of the
abundance of recent cultivation. These may call to our mind the

* An account of this survey is very clearly given in the ' United Service
Journal ' for January, 1836. Knowing something of the country, v?e have
reversed the order of that description, leading our readers from Staines to Sil-
chester, instead of from Silchester to Staines

story which Camden has told : — " On the ground whereon this city
was built (I speak in Nennius's words) the Emperor Constantius
sowed three grains of corn, that no person inhabiting there might
ever be poor." We look around, and we ask the busy thatchers
of the ricks where are the old walls ; for we can see nothing but
extensive corn-fields, bounded by a somewhat higher bank than
ordinary,— that bank luxuriant with oak, and ash, and snrinffine
underwood. The farm labourers know what we are in search of,
and they ask us if we want to buy any coins — for whenever the
heavy rains fall they find coins— and they have coins, as they have
been toid, of Romulus and Remus, and this was a great place a long
while ago. It is a tribute to the greatness of the place that to
whomsoever we spoke of these walls and the area- within the walls,
they called it the city. Here was a city, of one church and one
farmhouse. The people who went to that church lived a mile or
two off in their scattered hamlets. Silence reigned in that city.
The ploughs and spades of successive generations had gone over its
ruins ; but its memory still lived in tradition ; it was an object to
be venerated. There was something mysterious about this area of
a hundred acres, that rendered it very different to the ploughman's
eye from a common hundred acres. Put the plough deep as he
would, manure the land with every care of the unfertile spots, the
crop was not like other crops. He knew not that old Leland, three
hundred years ago, had written, " There is one strange thing seen
there, that in certain parts of the ground within the walls the corn
is marvellous fair to the eye, and, ready to show perfecture, it
decayeth." He knew not that a hundred years afterwards another
antiquary had written, " The inhabitants of the place told me it had
been a constant observation amongst them, that though the soil here
is fat and fertile, yet in a sort of baulks that cross one another the
corn never grows so thick as in other parts of the field " (Camden).
He knew from his own experience, and that was enough, that when
the crop came up there were lines and cross lines from one side of
the whole area within the walls to the other side, which seemed to
tell that where the lines ran the corn would not freely grow. The
lines were mapped out about the year 1745. The map is in the
King's Library in the British Museum. The plan which we have
given (Fig. 125) does not much vary from the Museum map, which
is founded on actual survey. There can be no doubt that the
country-people of Camden's time were right with regard to these
" baulks that cross one another." He says, " Along these they
believe the streets of the old city to have run." Camden tells us
further of the country-people, " They very frequently dig up British
[Roman] tiles, and great plenty of Roman coins, which they call
Onion pennies, from one Onion, whom they foolishly fancy to have
been a giant, and an inhabitant of this city." Speaking of the area
within the walls, he says, " By the rubbish and ruins the earth is
grown so high, that I could scarcely thrust myself through a passage
which they call Onion's Hole, though I stooped very low." The
fancy of the foolish people about a giant has been borne out by
matters of which Camden makes no mention. " Nennius ascribes
the foundation of Silchester to Constantius, the son of Constantine
the Great. Whatever improvements he might have made in its
buildings or defences, I cannot but think it had a much earlier
origin : as the chief fastness or forest stronghold of the Segontiaci,
it probably existed at the time of Caesar's expedition into Britain.
The anonymous geographer of Ravenna gives it a name which I
have not yet noticed, Ard-oneon ; this is a pure British compound,
and may be read Ardal-Onion, the region of Einion, or Onion"
(' Archadogia,' 1837). It is thus here, as in many other cases, that
when learning, despising tradition and common opinion, runs its own
little circle, it returns to the point from which it set out, and being
inclined to break its bounds finds the foolish fancies which it has
despised not always unsafe, and certainly not uninteresting, guides
through a more varied region.

By a broader way than Onion's Hole we will get without the
walls of Silchester. There is a pretty direct line of road through
the farm from east to west, which nearly follows the course of one
of the old streets. Let us descend the broken bank at the point a
(Fig. 125.) We are now under the south-western wall. As we
advance in a northerly direction, the walls become more distinctly
associated with the whole character of the scene. Cultivation here
has not changed the aspect which this solitary place has worn for
centuries. We are in a broad glade, sloping down to a ditch or
little rivulet, with a bold bank on the outer side. We are in the
fosse of the city, with an interval of some fifty or sixty feet between
the walls and the vallum. The grass of this glade is of the rankest
luxuriance. The walls, sometimes entirely hidden by bramble and
iVy} — sometimes bare, and exhibiting their peculiar construction, —
sometimes fallen in great masses, forced down by the roots of

ri44. — Hadrian.
From a Copper Coin in the British Museum.

143.-OM Walls of Rome.

~3

w

w

o

a

139.— Restoration of the Roman Arch forming Newport Gate, Lincoln

,

146. — Antoninus Pius.
From a Copper Coin in the British Museum,

HBrWj

110.— Roman Arch forming ^ewport Gate Lincoln, as it appeared in 1792.

141.— Remains of a Roman Hypocaust, or Subterranean Furnace, for Heating Baths, at Lincoln.

142.— Ancient Arch on Road leading into Rome

147 —Copper Coin of Antoninus Pius, commemorative of his
-^ victories in Britain, from one in the British Museum.

40

Wal. and Dikk of Severus.

North.

138.— Profile of tne Roman Wall and Vallum, near th> South Agger Port Gate

Jl

36 ft.

Section and Wall ot Severus.

Wall and Ditch of Severus.

7vc-
143.— Part of a Roman "Wall ; the Site of the Ancient Verulam, near St. Alban's.

149. — Part of the Roman Wall of London excavated behind the Minorics.

,-.-\

.gillii!!^

''ill') ~v

'life.,,:.

f.l.n. (.V. p * . i

150.— London Stone.

151.— Duntocher Bridge.

152.— Bronze Pater*. View 1.

154. — Bronze Patera. View 3.

153.— Bronze Patera. View 2.

158.— Pig of Lead, with the Roman Stamp.

No, e.

155.— Pig of Lead, with the Roman Stamp.

157.— Pig of Lead, witn the Roman Stamp.

41

42

OLD ENGLAND.

[Book I.

mighty trees, which have shared the ruin that they precipitated, —
sometimes with a gnarled oak actually growing out of their tops, —
present such a combination of picturesqueness as no pencil can
reach, because it can only deal with fragments of the great mass.
The desolation of the place is the most impressive thing that ever
smote cur minds with a new emotion. We seem alone in the world ;
we are here amidst the wrecks of ages ; tribes, whose names and
localities are matters of controversy, have lived here before the
Romans, for the Romans did not form, their cities upon such a plan.
The Romans have come here, and have mixed with the native
people. Inscriptions have been found here : one dedicated to the
Hercules of the Segontiaci, showing that this place was the Caer
Segont of the Britons ; another in honour of Julia Domna, the
second wife of the Emperor Severus. Splendid baths have been
dug up within the walls : there are the distinct remains of a forum
and a temple. In one spot so much coin has been found, that the
place goes by the name of Silver Hill. The city was the third
of British towns in extent. There is an amphitheatre still existing
on the north-eastern side of the wall, which tells us that here the
amusements of ancient Rome were exhibited to the people. History
records that here the Roman soldiers forced the imperial purple
upon Constantine, the rival of Honorius. The monkish chroniclers
report that in this city was King Arthur inaugurated. And here,
in the nineteenth century, in a country thickly populated, — more
abundant in riches, fuller of energy than at any other period, —
intersected with roads in all directions, — lies this Silchester, which
once had its direct communications with London, with Winchester,
with Old Sarum, the capital doubtless of a great district, — here it
lies, its houses and its temples probably destroyed by man, but its
walls only slowly yielding to that power of vegetable nature which
works as surely for destruction as the fire and sword, and topples
down in the course of centuries what man has presumed to build
for unlimited duration, neglected, unknown, almost a solitary place
amidst thick woods and bare heaths. It is an ingenious theory
which derives the supposed Roman name of this place from the
great characteristic of it which still remains : " The term Galleva,
or Calleva, of the Roman Itineraries, appears to have had the same
source, and was but a softened form of the British Gual Vawr, or
the Great Wall ; both names had their root perhaps in the Greek
XaXi't, (silex), whence also the French Caillon (a pebble). Sile-
chester or Silchester is therefore but a Saxonizing, to use the term,
of Silicis Castrum, the Fortress of the Flint or Wall, by the easy
metonymy which I have shown." (' Archasologia,' 1837.) The
striking characteristic of Silchester is the ruined Avail, with the
flourishing trees upon it and around it, and the old trees that have
grown up centuries ago, and are now perishing with it. This is the
poetry of the place, and the old topographers felt it after their
honest fashion. Leland says, " On that wall grow some oaks of ten
cart-load the piece." Camden says, " The walls remain in good
measure entire, only with some few gaps in those places where the
gates have been ; and out of those walls there grow oaks of such a
vast bigness incorporated as it were with the stones, and their roots
and boughs are spread so far around, that they raise admiration in
all who behold them." (Fig. 124.)

" High towns, fair temples, goodly theatres,
Strong wallB, ricli porches, princely palaces,
Large streets, brave houses, sacred sepulchres,
Sure gates, sweet gardens, stately galleries,
Wrought with fair pillars and fine imageries " —

ye are fallen. Fire has consumed you ; earth is heaped upon you ;
the sapling oak has sprung out of the ashes of your breathing
statues and your votive urns, and having flourished for five hundred
years, other saplings have rooted themselves in your ruins for
another five hundred years, and again other saplings are rising —
so to flourish and so to perish. Time, which has destroyed thee,
Silchester, clothes thee with beauty. " Time loves thee :"

" He, gentlest among the thralls
Of Destiny, upon these wounds hath laid
His lenient touches."

Mr. John Rickman, speaking of Silchester, " the third of British
towns in extent," says, " that the Romanized inhabitants of the last-
named town were distinguished by their cultivated taste, is testified
by the amphitheatre outside the walls, one of the few undisputed
relics of that kind in Britain." (' Archseologia,' vol. xxviii.)
Whether the presence of the inhabitants of Silchester at the brutal
games of the Romans be any proof of their cultivated taste may be
treasonably questioned ; but the existence of the amphitheatre is an
evidence that the Roman customs were here established, and that
♦he people had become habituated to them. The amphitheatre at

Silchester is situated without the walls, to the north-east. There
can be no doubt about the form and construction of this relic of
antiquity. We stand upon a steep circular bank covered with
trees, and descend by its sloping sides into an area of moderate
dimensions. Some describers of this place tell us that the seats
were ranged in five rows, one above the other. Earlier, and
perhaps more accurate observers, doubt whether seats were at all
used in these turfy amphitheatres. " It is well known that the
Romans originally stood at games, till luxury introduced sitting ;
and it is observable, that the Castrensian amphitheatres in general
preserve no signs of subsellia, or seats ; so that the people must
have stood on the grassy declivity. I saw no signs of seats in that
of Carleon, nor in the more perfect one near Dorchester, as Stukeley
has also observed. Nor do I recollect that any such have been dis-
covered in any other Castrensian amphitheatre, at least in our island,
where they seem to have been rather numerous." (Mr. Strange, in
' Archoeologia,' vol. v.) The very perfect amphitheatre at Dorchester
is much larger than that of Silchester, Stukeley having computed
that it was capable of containing twenty-three thousand people.
The form, however, of both amphitheatres is precisely similar
(Fig. 126). Their construction was different. The bank of the
amphitheatre at Silchester is composed of clay and gravel ; that at
Dorchester of blocks of solid chalk. These were rude structures
compared with the amphitheatres of those provinces of Rome which
had become completely Romanized. Where the vast buildings of
this description were finished with architectural magnificence, the
most luxurious accommodation was provided for all ranks of the
people. Greece and Britain exhibit no remains of these grander
amphitheatres, such as are found at Nismes and at Verona. The
amphitheatre of Pompeii, though of larger dimensions than the
largest in England, Dorchester, appears to have been constructed
upon nearly the same plan as that (Fig. 12-8.) Some bas-reliefs
found at Pompeii indicate the nature of the amusements that once
made the woods of Silchester ring with the howlings of infuriated
beasts and the shouts of barbarous men (Fig. 127).

The Roman Wall — the Wall of Agricola — the Wall of Hadrian —
the Wall of Severus — the Picts' Wall — the Wall, are various names
by which the remains of a mighty monument of the Romans in
England are called by various writers. William Hutton, the
liveliest and the least pedantic of antiquarians, who at seventy-eight
years of age twice traversed the whole length of the Roman Wall,
denominates it " one of the grandest works of human labour,
performed by the greatest nation upon earth." From a point on
the river Tyne, between Newcastle and North Shields, to Boulness
on the Solway Frith, a distance of nearly eighty miles, have the
remains of this wall been distinctly traced. It was the great
artificial boundary of Roman England from sea to sea ; a barrier
raised against the irruptions of the fierce and unconquerable race
of the Caledonians upon the fertile South, which had received the
Roman yoke, and rested in safety under the Roman military pro-
tection. The Wall, speaking popularly, consists of three distinct
works, which by some are ascribed to the successive operations of
Agricola, of Hadrian (Figs. 144, 145), and of Severus. The Wall
of Antoninus (Figs. 146, 147), now called Grimes Dyke, was a
more northerly intrenchment, extending from the Clyde to the
Forth ; but this rampart was abandoned during subsequent years of
the Roman occupation, and the boundary between the Solway Frith
and the German Ocean, which we are now describing, was strength-
ened and perfected by every exertion of labour and skill. Hutton
may probably have assigned particular portions of the work to
particular periods upon insufficient evidence, but he has described
the works as they appeared forty years ago better than any other
writer, because he described from actual observation. We shall,
therefore, adopt his general account of the wall, before proceeding
to notice any remarkable features of this monument.

" There were four different works in this grand barrier, performed
by three personages, and at different periods. I will measure them
from south to north, describe them distinctly, and appropriate each
part to its proprietor ; for, although every part is dreadfully
mutilated, yet, by selecting the best of each, we easily form a
whole ; from what is, we can nearly tell what was. We must take
our dimensions from the original surface of the ground.

" Let us suppose a ditch, like that at the foot of a quickset-hedge,
three or four feet deep, and as wide. A bank rising from it ten
feet high, and thirty wide in the base; this, with the ditch, will
give us a rise of thirteen feet at least. The other side of the bank
sinks into a ditch ten feet deep, and fifteen wide, which gives the
north side of this bank a declivity of twenty feet. A small part
of the soil thrown out f n the north side of this fifteen-feet ditch.

Chap. If. J

OLD ENGLAND.

43

forms a bank three feet high and six wide, which gives an elevation
from the bottom of the ditch of thirteen feet. Thus our two
ditches and two mounds, sufficient to keep out every rogue but he
who was determined not to be kept out, were the work of Agricola.

" The works of Hadrian invariably join those of Agricola. They
always correspond together, as beautiful parallel lines. Close to
the north side of the little bank I last described, Hadrian sunk a
ditch twenty-four feet wide, and twelve below the surface of the
ground, which, added to Agricola's three-feet bank, forms a declivity
of fifteen feet on the south, and on the north twelve. Then follows
a plain of level ground, twenty-four yards over, and a bank exactly
the same as Agricola's, ten feet high, and thirty in the base ; and
then he finishes, as his predecessor began, with a small ditch of
three or four feet.

" Thus the two works exactly coincide ; and must, when complete,
have been most grand and beautiful. Agricola's works cover about
fifty-two feet, and Hadrian's about eighty-one; but this will admit
of some variation.

" Severus's works run nearly parallel with the other two ; lie on
the north, never far distant ; but may be said always to keep them
in view, running a course that best suited the judgment of the
maker. The nearest distance is about twenty yards, and greatest
near a mile ; the medium, forty or fifty yards.

" They consist of a stone Avail eight feet thick, twelve high, and
four the battlements ; with a ditch to the north, as near as
convenient, thirty-six feet wide and fifteen deep. To the wall
were added, at unequal distances, a number of stations, or cities,
said to be eighteen, which is not perfectly true ; eighty-one castles,
and three hundred and thirty castelets, 01 turrets, which, I believe,
is true : all joining the wall.

" Exclusive of this wall and ditch, these stations, castles, and
turrets, Severus constituted a variety of roads, yet called Roman
roads, twenty-four feet wide, and eighteen inches high in the centre,
which led from turret to turret, from one castle to another; and
still larger and more distant roads from the wall, which led from
one station to another, besides the grand military way before
mentioned, which covered all the works, and no doubt was first
formed by Agricola, improved by Hadrian, and, after lying dormant
fifteen hundred years, was made complete in 1752.

"I saw many of these smaller roads, all overgrown with turf;
and when on the side of a hill, they are supported on the lower side
with edging stones.

" Thus Agricola formed a small ditch, then a bank and ditch,
both large, and then finished with a small bank.

" Hadrian joined to this small bank a large ditch, then a plain, a
large mound, and then finished with a small ditch.

" Severus followed nearly in the same line, with a wall, a variety
of stations, castles, turrets, a large ditch, and many roads. By much
the most laborious task. Tins forms the whole works of our three
renowned chiefs."

Eleven hundred years before the persevering Hutton began his
toilsome march along the Roman Wall, Bede had described it as

" still famous and to be seen eight foot in breadth and

twelve in height, in a straight line from east to west, as is still
visible to the beholders." Bede resided in the neighbourhood of
the "Wall, and he notices it as a familiar object would naturally be
noticed — as incidental to his narrative. The dimensions which he
gives are, however, perfectly accurate, as Gibson has pointed out.
Long before Bede noticed the Wall the Romans had quitted ,-ne
country; and this great barrier was insufficient to protect the timid
inhabitants of the South against the attacks of their Northern
invaders, " who, finding that the old confederates were marched
home, and refused to return any more, put on greater boldness than
ever, and possessed themselves of all the North, and the remote
parts of the kingdom to the very Wall. To withstand this invasion
the towers are defended by a lazy garrison, undisciplined, and too
cowardly to engage an enemy, being enfeebled with continual sloth
and idleness. In the meanwhile the naked enemy advance with
their hooked weapons, by which the miserable Britons are pulled
down from the tops of the walls and dashed against the ground."
This is the description of Gildas, our most ancient historian, who
lived in the sixth century. Generations passed away ; new races
grew up on each side of the Wall ; and there, for another long
period of strife, was the great scene of the Border feuds between the
English and the Scotch. It is no wonder that the traces of the Wall
in many places should be almost obliterated ; or that the fair cities
and populous stations which, under the Roman dominion, existed
along its line, should have left only fragmentary remains of their
former greatness. And yet these remains are most remarkable.
House-steads, which is about the centre of the work, is held to

have been the eighth station, Borcovicus : and the fragments of
antiquity here discovered have commanded the admiration of all
antiquarian explorers. Gibson, who surveyed a portion of the
Wall in 1108, here saw seven or eight Roman altars which had
been recently dug lip, and a great number of statues. Alexandei
Gordon, whose ' Itinerarium Septentrionale 'was published in 172C,
describes House-steads, "so named from the marks of old Roman
buildings still appearing on that ground," as "unquestionably the
most remarkable and magnificent Roman station in the whole island
of Britain." He says, amidst his minute descriptions of statues and
altars, " It is hardly credible what a number of august remains of the
Roman grandeur is to be seen here to this day ; seeing in every place
where one casts his eye there is some curious Roman antiquity to be
seen, either the marks of streets and temples in ruins, or inscriptions,
broken pillars, statues, and other pieces of sculpture, all scattered
along this ground." When Hutton surveyed the Wall, he found
one solitary house upon the site of the Roman City ; and in this lone
dwelling a Roman altar, complete as in the day the workman left it,
formed the jamb which supported the mantel-piece, " one solid .stone,
four feet high, two broad, and one thick." The gossiping antiquary
grows rhetorical amidst the remains of Borcovicus: — " It is not easy
to survey these important ruins without a sigh ; a place once of the
greatest activity, but now a solitary desert: instead of the human
voice is heard nothing but the wind." Some of the statues and
inscriptions found at House-steads and other parts of the Roman Wall
now form a portion of the beautiful collection of Roman antiquities
in the Newcastle Museum (Figs. 133, 134, 135, and 13G). Of
these the Roman soldiers and the Victory are rudely engraved
in Gordon's book. The appearance of the Wall at House-steads is
shown in Fig. 132 ; and this engraving suggests a conviction of the
accuracy of Camden's description of the Wall: — "I have observed
the track of it running up the mountains and down again in a most
surprising manner." The massive character of the works is well
exhibited at the sandstone-quarries at Denton Dean, where the
wall, whose fragment is five feet high, has only three courses of
facing-stones on one side and four on the other. Blocks of
stone of such dimensions must of themselves have formed a quarry
for successive generations to hew at and destroy (Fig. 131).
There is a pretty tradition recorded by Camden, which offers as
good evidence of the Roman civilization as the fragments of their
temples and their statues. The tomb of a young Roman physician
is amongst the antiquities of the Newcastle Museum ; and our old
topographer tells us, "One thing there is which I will not keep
from the reader, because I had it confirmed by persons of very good
credit. There is a general persuasion in the neighbourhood, handed
down by tradition, that the Roman garrisons upon the frontiers set
in these parts abundance of medicinal plants for their own use.
Whereupon the Scotch surgeons come hither a-simpling every year
in the beginning of summer; and having by long experience found
the virtue of these plants, they magnify them very much, and affirm
them to be very sovereign." The general appearance of the Roman
Wall and Vallum is exhibited in Fig. 138. This was delineated by
John Warburton, from a portion of the wall near Halton-Chesters,
in 1722. A little farther beyond this point Hutton was well repaid
for his laborious walk of six hundred miles, by such a satisfactory
view of the great Roman work, that the admiration of the good old
man was raised into an enthusiastic transport, at which the dull
may wonder, and the unimaginative may laugh, but which had its
own reward. With this burst of the happy wayfarer we conclude
our notice of " that famous wall which was the boundary of the
Roman province." " I now travel over a large common, still upon
the Wall, with its trench nearly complete. But what was my
surprise when I beheld, thirty yards on my left, the united works
of Agricola and Hadrian, almost perfect ! I climbed over a stone
wall to examine the wonder ; measured the whole in every direction ;
surveyed them with surprise, with delight ; was fascinated, and
unable to proceed ; forgot I was upon a wild common, a stranger,
and the evening approaching. I had the grandest works under my
eye of the greatest men of the age in which they lived, and of the
most eminent nation then existing ; all which had suffered but little
during the long course of sixteen hundred years. Even hunger
and fatigue were lost in the grandeur before me. If a man writes
a book upon a turnpike-road, he cannot be expected to move quick ;
but, lost in astonishment, I was not able to move at all."

The Wall of Antoninus, or Grimes Dyke, to which we have
already referred, was carried across the north of Britain, under the
direction of Lollius Urbicus, the legate of Antoninus Pius, about
the year a. d. 140. It is noticed by an ancient Roman writer as
a turf wall ; and although its course may be readily traced, it has,
from the nature of its construction, not left such enduring remains

G 2

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153.— Plan of Roman London.

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159.— Roman Bath, Strand Lane.

165.— Coin and Fragment.

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160.— Sepulchral Stone found at Ludgate.

161.— Tessellated Pavement.

162.— Bronze Statues found in the Thames.

163.— Vases, Lamps, &c, tound after the Great Fire

16£.— Roman Antiquities luund on ice Site of St. Paul's Cross*

44

w^_

■ICC— Urns, Vases, Key, Bead, and Fragment of Tottery, found in Lxmbard Street 173S.

167.— Altar of Apollo, and Vases.

1 Bronze Spear- Head. .

2 Bronze Dagger.

3 Iron Knife.

4 Bronze Lanes-Wood.

5 Iron Lance-Head.

6 Celt.

7 Bronze I.nnce-'Icad.

8 Bronze Celt.

9 Ivwy Arrow-Head

10 Iron Boss oi a Sim d

11 Bronze Buckle.

12 Iron Crook

13 Iron Ring.

14 Plated Iron Stud.

15 Bronze Pin.

j* | Bronze Pins with Ivory Hand'.c:
})? i Bronze Ornaments.

20 Amul-'t

21 Gold Box
22

23 J

Gold Ornaments.

21 Amber and Bead Necklace.

25 Go!d Breastplate.

26 Patera.

27 Ivory Bracelet.
23 Drinking Cup.
29 Incense Cup.

30)

31 !• Dri

32 |

Drinking Cups.

^ \ Double, Drinking Cup -.

35|

36 /Urns.

37 I

33 Druidical IIoo'.c foi gathering.

the Sacred Mistletoe

168.— Roman-British Weapons, Ornaments. &c.

169.— Roman Vessels, &c, found in Britain.

171.— Metal coating of an ancient Roman-British Shield, found in the be<*
of the river Witham, and now in the Meyrick Collection.

173. — British Coin of Carausius.
From a unique Gold Coin in the British Museum.

' 372.— Constantine the Great.
From a Gold Coin in the British Museum.

45

46

OLD ENGLAND.

I Book i.

as the Wall of Severus. The Wall of Antoninus connected a line
of Roman forts; and these were necessarily built of substantial
materials. Duntocher Bridge, on the line of this wall, was long
popularly considered to have been a Roman work ; but it has been
more reasonably conjectured to have been a very ancient work,
constructed out of materials found on the line of the wall (Fig. 14S).
The military way in some places runs parallel with Grimes Dyke.
The ditch itself presents in some places a wonderful example of the
Roman boldness in engineering. At a part called Bar Hill, Gordon
describes " the fossa running down in a straight line from the top
of the hill in such a magnificent manner as must surprise the
beholder, great part of it being cut through the solid rock, and is
of such a vast breadth and depth, that when I measured it it was no
less than forty feet broad and thirty-five feet deep." The surprise
of Mr. Gordon was before the age of railways : the time may
perhaps arrive when the deep cuttings and tunnellings through the
solid rock in the nineteenth century shall be compared with the
Roman works of the second century, by new races of men who
travel by other lines or with different mechanism. But, however
obscure may then be the history of our own works, it is quite
certain that we shall have left our traces upon the earth ; some con-
solation, though small, to balance the reflections which are naturally
suggested when we look upon the ruins of populous cities and
mighty defences, and consider how little we know of their origin,
of the people who built them, and of the individual life that was once
busy in these solitary places.

We have described, rapidly and imperfectly, some ancient places
now buried in deep solitude, which were once filled with many
people who pursued the ordinary occupations of human industry,
and who were surrounded with the securities, comforts, and elegan-
cies of social life. Great changes have necessarily been produced
in the revolution of two thousand years. Hume, in his ' Essay of the
Populousness of Ancient Nations,' says, " The barbarous condition
of Britain in former times is well known, and the thinness of its
inhabitants may easily be conjectured, both from their barbarity,
and from a circumstance mentioned by Herodian, that all Britain
was marshy, even in Severus's time, after the Romans had been
fully settled in it above a century." In process of time the marshes
were drained ; the population of the hills, as in the case of Old
Sarum, descended into the plains. The advantages of communi-
cation located towns upon the banks of rivers, which were restrained
within deep channels by artificial bounds. London thus grew
when the Thames was walled out of the low lands. So probably
York, when the Ouse became tributary to man, instead of being a
pestilent enemy. When the civilizers taught the original inhabit-
ants to subdue the powers of nature to their use, the sites of great
towns were fixea, and have remained fixed even to our own day, in
consequence of those natural advantages which have continued
unimpaired during the changes of centuries. The Romans were
the noblest of colonizers. They did not make their own country
rich by the exhaustive process which has been the curse of modern
:olonization. They taught the people their own useful arts, and
ney shared the riches which they had been the instruments of
producing. They distributed amongst subdued nations their own
refinements ; and in the cultivation of the higher tastes they found
that security which could never have resulted from the coercion of
brutal ignorance. Tacitus says of Agricola, the great colonizer of
England, "That the Britons, who led a roaming and unsettled
life, and were easily instigated to war, might contract a love of
peace and tranquillity by being accustomed to a more pleasant
way of living, he exhorted and assisted them to build houses
temples, courts, and market-places. By praising the diligent,
and reproaching the indolent, he excited so great an emulation
amongst the Britons, that after they had erected all those necessary
edifices in their towns, they proceeded to build others merely for
ornament and pleasure, such as porticoes, galleries, baths, banquet-
ing-houses, &c." Many of the still prosperous places of England,
even at the present day, show us what the Romans generally, if not
especially Agricola, did for the advancement of the arts of life
amongst our remote forefathers. Lincoln is one of these cities
of far-off antiquity — a British, a Roman, a Saxon city. Leland
says, " I heard say that the lower part of Lincoln town was all
marsh, and won by policy, and inhabited for the commodity of the
water. ... It is easy to be perceived that the town of Lincoln
hath been notably builded at three times. The first uilding was
on the very top of the hill, the oldest part whereof inhabited in
the Britons' time was the northest part of the hill, directly without
Newport gate, the ditches whereof yet remain, and great tokens of
the old town-walls taken out of a ditch by it, for all the top of

Lincoln Hill is quarry-ground. This is now a suburb to Newport
Gate." And there at Lincoln stills stands Kewport Gate — the
Roman gate, — formed by a plain square pier and a semicircular
arch (Figs. 139, 140). The Roman walls and the Roman arches
of Lincoln are monuments of the same great people that we find at
Rome itself (Figs. 142, 143). At Lincoln too are the remains of
such baths as Agricola taught the Britons to build (Fig. 141).
The Newport Gate of Lincoln, though half filled up by the eleva-
tion of the soil, exhibits a central arch sixteen feet wide, with two
lateral arches. Within the area of the Roman walls now stand the
Cathedral and the Castle, monuments equally interesting of other
times and circumstances. At Lincoln, as at all other ancient
places, we can trace the abodes of the living in the receptacles for
the dead. The sarcophagi, the stone coffins, and the funereal urns
here found, tell of the people of different ages and creeds mingled
now in their common dust.

A fragment of Roman wall still proclaims the site of the ancient
Verulam (Fig. 149). Camden says, " The situation of this
place is well known to have been close by the town of St. Albans.
.... Nor hath it yet lost its ancient name, for it is still com-
monly called Verulam ; although nothing of that remains besides
ruins of walls, chequered pavements, and Roman coins, which
they now and then dig up." The fame of the Roman Verulam
was merged in the honours of the Christian St. Albans ; and the
bricks of the old city were worked up into the church of the proto-
martyr of England. Bede tells the story of the death of St. Alban,
the first victim in Britain of the persecution of Diocletian, in the
third century, with a graphic power which brings the natural
features of this locality full before our view : " The most reverend
confessor of God ascended the hill with the throng, the which
decently pleasant agreeable place is almost five hundred paces from
the river, embellished with several sorts of flowers, or rather quite
covered with them ; wherein there is no part upright, or steep, nor
anything craggy, but the sides stretching out far about, is levelled
by nature like the sea, which of old it had rendered worthy to be
enriched with the martyr's blood for its beautiful appearance."

" Tims was Albau tried,
England's first martyr, whom no threats could shake :
Self-offered victim, for his friend he died,
And for the faith — nor shall his name forsake
That Hill, whose flowery platform seems to rise
By Nature decked for holiest sacrifice."

WOItDSWOKTH.

In the time of Aubrey, some half-century later than that of
Camden, there were " to be seen in some few places some remains
of the walls of this city." Speaking of Lord Bacon, Aubrey says,
" AVithin the bounds of the walls of this old city of Verulam (his
lordship's barony) was Verulam House, about a half mile from St.
Alban's, which his lordship built, the most ingeniously-contrived
little pile that ever I saw." It was here that Bacon, freed,
however dishonourably, from the miserable intrigues of Whitehall,
and the debasing quirks and quibbles of the Courts, laid the
foundations of his ever-during fame. Aubrey tells us a story which
is characteristic of Bacon's enthusiastic temperament : — " This
magnanimous Lord Chancellor had a great mind to have made it
[Verulam] a city again ; and he had designed it to be built with
great uniformity ; but fortune denied it to him, though she proved
kinder to the great Cardinal Richelieu, who lived both to design
and finish that specious town of Richelieu, where he was born,
before an obscure and small village." Fortune not only denied
Bacon to found this city, but even the '"'ingeniously-contrived little
pile," his gardens, and his banqueting-houses, which he had built
at an enormous cost, were swept away within thirty years after his
death : " One would have thought," says Aubrey, " the most bar-
barous nation had made a conquest here." To use the words of
the philosopher of Verulam himself, " It is not good to look too
long upon these turning wheels of Vicissitude, lest we become
giddy."

York, the Eboracum of the Romans, was one of the most im-
portant of these British cities. Its Roman remains have very
recently been described by a learned resident of this city : — " One
of the angle-towers, and a portion of the wall of Eboracum attached
to it, are to this day remaining in an extraordinary state of pre-
servation. In a recent removal of a considerable part of the more
modern wall and rampart, a much larger portion of the Roman
wall, connected with the same angle-tower, but in another direction,
with remains of two wall-towers, and the foundations of one of the
gates of the station, were found buried within the ramparts ; and
excavations at various times and in different parts of the present
city have discovered so many indubitable remains of the fortifications

Chap. II.]

OLD ENGLAND.

47

of Eboracum, on three of its sides, that the conclusion appears to
be fully warranted that this important station was of a rectangular
form, corresponding very nearly with the plan of a Polybian camp,
occupying a space of about six hundred and fifty yards, by about
five hundred and fifty, enclosed by a wall and a rampant mound
on the inner side of the wall, and a fosse without, with four angle-
towers, and a series of minor towers or turrets, and having four
gates or principal entrances, from which proceeded military roads to
the neighbouring stations mentioned in the ' Itinerary ' of Antonine.
Indications of extensive suburbs, especially on the south-west and
north-west, exist in the numerous and interesting remains of primeval
monuments, coffins, urns, tombs, baths, temples, and villas, which
from time to time, and especially of late years, have been brought
to light. Numberless tiles, bearing the impress of the sixth and
ninth legions, fragments of Samian ware, inscriptions, and coins
from the age of Julius Caesar to that of Constantine and his family,
-concur, with the notice of ancient geographers and historians, to
identify the situation of modern York with that of ancient Ebora-
cum." (' Penny Cyclopaedia,' vol. xxvii.)

And well might York have been a mighty fortress, and a city of
palaces and temples ; for here the Roman emperors had their chief
seat when they visited Britain ; here Severus and Constantius Chlorus
died ; here, though the evidence is somewhat doubtful, Constantine
the Great was born.

Bath, a Roman city, connected by great roads with London and
with the south coast, famous for its baths, a city of luxury amongst
the luxurious colonizers, has presented to antiquarian curiosity more
Roman remains than any other station in England. The city is
supposed to be now twenty feet above its ancient level ; and here,
whenever the earth is moved, are turned up altars, tessellated pave-
ments, urns, vases, lachrymatories, coins. Portions of a large temple
consisting of a portico with fluted columns and Corinthian capitals,
were discovered in 1790. The remains of the ancient baths have
been distinctly traced. The old walls of the city are held to have
been built upon the original Roman foundations. These walls
have been swept away, and with them the curious relics of the
elder period, which Leland has thus minutely described : — "There
be divers notable antiquities engraved in stone that yet be seen in
the walls of Bath betwixt the south gate and the west gate, and
again betwixt the west gate and the north gate." He then notices
with more than ordinary detail a number of images, antique heads,
tombs with inscriptions, and adds, "I much doubt whether these
antique works were set in the time of the Romans' dominion in
Britain in the walls of Bath as they stand now, or whether they
were gathered of old ruins there, and since set up in the walls, re-
edified in testimony of the antiquity of the town." Camden appears
to have seen precisely the same relics as Leland saw, " fastened on
the inner side of the wall between the north and west gates." These
things were in existence, then, a little more than two hundred years
ago. There have been no irruptions of barbarous people into
the country, to destroy these and other things of value which they
could not understand. We had a high literature when these things
were preserved ; there were learned men amongst us ; and the
writers of imagination had that reverence for antiquity which is one
of the best fruits of a diffused learning. From that period we have
been wont to call ourselves a polite people. We are told that since
that period we have had an Augustan age of letters and of arts.
Yet somehow it has happened that during these last two centuries
there has been a greater destruction of ancient things, and a more
wanton desecration of sacred things, perpetrated by people in
authority, sleek, self-satisfied functionaries, practical men, as they
termed themselves, who despised all poetical associations, and thought
the beautiful incompatible with the useful— there has been more
wanton outrage committed upon the memorials of the past, than all
the invaders and pillagers of our land had committed for ten centuries
before. The destruction has been stopped, simply because the
standard of taste and of feeling has been raised amongst a few.

It is inconsistent with our plan to attempt any complete detail of
the antiquities of any one period, as they are found in various parts
of the kingdom. To accomplish this, each period would require a
volume, or many volumes. Cur purpose is to excite a general spirit
of inquiry, and to gratify that curiosity as far as we are able, by a
few details of what is most remarkable. Let us finish our account
of the Roman cities by a brief notice of Roman London.

A writer whose ability is concurrent with his careful investigation
of every subject which he touches, has well described the circum-
stances which led to the choice of London as a Roman city, upon a
site which the Britons had peopled, in all likelihood, before the
Roman colonization : —

" The spot on which London is built, or at least that on which the

first buildings were most probably erected, was pointed out by nature
for the site of a city. It was the suspicion of the sagacious Wren,
as we are informed in the ' Parentalia,' that the whole valley
between Camberwell Hill and the hills of Essex must have been
anciently filled by a great frith or arm of the sea, which increased
in width towards the east ; and that this estuary was only in the
course of ages reduced to a river by the vast sand-hills which were
gradually raised on both sides of it by the wind and tide, the effect
being assisted by embankments, which on the Essex side are still
perfectly distinguishable as of artificial origin, and are evidently
works that could only have been constructed by a people of advanced
mechanical skill. Wren himself ascribed these embankments to the
Romans ; and it is stated that a single breach made in them in his
time cost 17,000/. to repair it — from which we may conceive both
how stupendous must have been the labour bestowed on their
original construction, and of what indispensable utility they are
still found to be. In fact, were it not for this ancient barrier, the
broad and fertile meadows stretching along that border of the river
would still be a mere marsh, or a bed of sand overflowed by the
water, though left perhaps dry in many places on the retirement of

the tide The elevation on which London is built

offered a site at once raised above the water, and at the same time
close upon the navigable portion of it — conditions which did not
meet in any other locality on either side of the river, or estuary,
from the sea upwards. It was the first spot on which a town could
be set down, so as to take advantage of the facilities of communica-
tion between the coast and the interior presented by this great
natural highway." (' London,' vol. i. No. IX.)

The walls of Loudon were partly destroyed in the time of Fitz-
Stephen, who lived in the reign of Henry II. He says, " The wall
of the city is high and great, continued with seven gates, which are
made double, and on the north distinguished with turrets by spaces.
Likewise on the south London hath been enclosed with walls and
towers ; but the large river of Thames, well stored with fish, and
in which the tide ebbs and flows, by continuance of time hath
washed, worn away, and cast down those walls." Camden writes :
" Our historians tell us that Constantine the Great, at the request
of Helena, his mother, first walled it [London] about with hewn
stone and British bricks, containing in compass about three miles;
whereby the city was made a square, but not equilateral, being
longer from west to east, and from south to north narrower. That
part of these walls which runs along by the Thames is quite washed
away by the continual beating of the river ; though Fitz-Stephen
(who In ed in Henry the Second's time) tells us there were some
pieces of it still to be seen. The rest remains to this day, and that
part toward the north very firm : for having not many years since
[1474] been repaired by one Jocelyn, who was Mayor, it put on, as
it were, a new face and freshness. But that toward the east and
the west, though the Barons repaired it in their wars out of the
demolished houses of the Jews, is all ruinous and going to decay."
The new face and freshness that were put on the north wall by one
Jocelyn the Mayor, have long since perished. A few fragments
above the ground, built-in, plastered over, proclaim to the curious
observer, that he walks Ln a city that has some claim to antiquity.
It was formerly a doubt with some of those antiquarian writers
who saw no interest in any inquiry except as a question of dispute,
whether the walls of London were of Roman construction. A
careful observer, Dr. Woodward, in the beginning of the last cen-
tury, had an opportunity of going below the surface, and the
matter was by him put beyond a doubt. He writes: — "The city
wall being upon this occasion, to make way for these new build-
ings, broke up and beat to pieces, from Bishopgate, onwards, S.E.
so far as they extend, an opportunity was given of observing the
fabric and composition of it. From the foundation, which lay
eight feet below the present surface, quite up to the top, which was
in all near ten foot, 'twas compiled alternately of layers of broad
flat bricks and of rag-stone. The bricks lay in double ranges ; and
each brick being about one inch and three-tenths in thickness, the
whole layer, with the mortar interposed, exceeded not three inches.
The layers of stone were not quite two foot thick of our measure.
'Tis probable they were intended for two of the Roman, their rule
being somewhat shorter than ours. To this height the workmanship
was after the Roman manner ; and these were the remains of the
ancient wall supposed to be built by Constantine the Great. In
this 'twas very observable that the mortar was, as usually in the
Roman works, so very firm and hard, that the stone itself as easily-
broke and gave way as that. 'Twas thus far from the foundation
upwards nine foot in thickness." The removal of old houses in
London is still going on as in Woodward's time; and more im-
portant excavations have been made in our own clay, and at the

1V4. — Atrium of a Roman House.

175.— Room of a Roman House. Restoration from Pompeii.

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48

No. 7.

'.9

50

OLD ENGLAND.

| Book I,

very hour in which we are writing. Clo.-e by St. Paul's, in the
formation of a deep sewer, the original peat-earth, over which
probably the Thames once flowed before man rested his foot here,
lias been dug down to. In such excavations the relics of age after
age have turned up. The Saxon town lies above the Roman ; and
the Norman above the Saxon ; but when the spade and the pickaxe
have broken against some mass solid as the granite rock, then
the labourer knows that he has come to a building such as men
build not now, foundations that seem intended to have lasted for
ever, the Roman work. Woodward described the Wall as he
saw it in Camomile Street in 1707. Mr. Craik, the writer whom
we have recently quoted, has recorded the appearance of the Wall
as he saw it in 1841, laid bare for the works of the Blackwall
Railway.

" Beneath a range of houses which have been in part demolished,
;n a court entering from the east side of Cooper's Row, nearly
opposite to Milbourne's Almshouses, and behind the south-west
corner of America Square, the workmen, having penetrated to the
natural earth — a hard, dry, sandy gravel — came upon a wall seven
feet and a half thick, running a very little to the west of north, or
parallel to the line of the Minories ; which, by the resistance it
offered, was at once conjectured to be of Roman masonry. When
we saw it, it had been laid bare on both sides, to the height of about
six or seven feet, and there was an opportunity of examining its con-
struction, both on the surface and in the interior. The principal part
of it consisted of five courses of squared stones, regularly laid, with two
layers of flat bricks below them, and two similar layers above — the
latter at least carried all the way through the wall — as represented
in the drawing (Fig. 150). The mortar, which appeared to be
extremely hard, had a {ew pebbles mixed up with it; and here and
there- were interstices, or air-cells, as if it had not been spread, but
ooured in among the stones. The stones were a granulated lime-
stone, such as might have been obtained from the chalk-quarries at
Greenhithe or Northfleet. The bricks, which were evidently
Roman, and, as far as the eye could judge, corresponded in size as
well as in shape with those described by Woodward, had as fine a
grain as common pottery, and varied in colour from a bright red to
a palish yellow. A slight circular or oval mark — in some cases
forming a double ring — appeared on one side of each of them, which
had been impressed when the clay was in a soft state." (' London,'
Vol. I. No. ix.)

A peculiarity in the construction of a portion of the ancient wall
of London was discovered during some large excavations for sewer-
age, between Lambeth Hill and Queenhithe, in 1841. The wall in
this part measured in breadth from eight to ten feet. Its foundation
was upon piles, upon which was laid a stratum of chalk and stones ;
then a course of ponderous hewn sandstones, held together by the
well-known cement ; and upon this solid structure the wall itself,
composed of layers of rag and flint, between the layers of Roman
tiles. The peculiarity to which we allude was described to the
Antiquarian Society by Mr. Charles Roach Smith : — " One of the
most remarkable features of this wall is the evidence it affords of
the existence of an anterior building, which from some cause or
other must have been destroyed. Many of the large stones above
mentioned are sculptured and ornamented with mouldings, which
denote their prior use in a frieze or entablature of an edifice, the
magnitude of which may be conceived from the fact of these stones
weighing in many instances upwards of half a ton. AVhatever might
have been the nature of this structure, its site, or cause of its over-
throw, we have no means of determining." The undoubted work of
fourteen or fifteen centuries ago is something not to be looked upon
without associations of deep and abiding interest ; but when we find
connected with such ancient labours more ancient labours, which
have themselves been overthrown by the changes of time or the
vicissitudes of fortune, the mind must fall back upon the repose of
its own ignorance, and be content to know how little it knows.

In the year 1785 a sewer, sixteen feet deep, was made in Lombard
Street. Sewers were not then common in London, and Sir John
Henniker, speaking of this work, says, " A large trench has been
excavated in Lombard Street for the first time since the memory of
man." In making this excavation vast quantities of Roman anti-
quities were discovered, which are minutely described and repre-
sented in the eighth volume of the ' Archaeologia.' Amongst other
curiosities was found a beautiful gold coin of the Emperor Galba.
The coin came into the possession of Sir John Henniker, who thus
relates the circumstances under which it was found : — " The soil is
almost uniformly divided into four strata ; the uppermost, thirteen
feet six inches thick, of factitious earth ; the second, two feet thick,
of brick, apparently the ruins of buildings ; the third, three inches
think, of wood-ashes, apparently the remains of a town built of wood,

and destroyed by fire ; the fourth, of Roman pavement, common and
tessellated. On this pavement the coin in question was discovered,
together with several other coins, and many articles of pottery. Below
the pavement the workmen find virgin earth." (' Archaiologia,' vol.
viii.) In 1831 various Roman remains were found in the construc-
tion of a sewer in Crooked Lane, and in Eastcheap. There, at a
depth of about seventeen feet, were found the walls of former houses
covered with wood-ashes, and about them were also found many
portions of green molten glass, and of red ware discoloured by the
action of fire. Mr. A. J. Kempe, who communicates these dis-
coveries to the Society of Antiquaries, adverts to the wood-ashes
found in Lombard Street in 1785 ; and he adds, " Couple this with
the circumstances I have related, and what stronger evidence can
be produced of the catastrophe in which the dwellings of the Roman
settlers at London were involved in the reign of Nero ? The
Roman buildings at the north-east corner of Eastcheap afforded a
curious testimony that such a conflagration had taken place, and
that London had been afterwards rebuilt by the Romans. Worked
into the mortar of the walls were numerous pieces of the fine red
ware, blackened by the action of an intense fire."

The circumstances recorded certainly furnish strong evidence of
a conflagration and a rebuilding of the city ; but the fact recorded
in 1785, that under the wood-ashes was a coin of Galba, is evidence
against the conflagration having taken place in the time of Nero,
whom Galba succeeded. Mr. Kempe has fallen into the general
belief that when Londinium was abandoned to the vengeance of
Boadicea, its buildings were destroyed by a general conflagration.
This was in the year a. d. 61. The coin of Galba under the wood-
ashes would seem to infer that the conflagration was at a later date,
in connection with circumstances of which we have no tradition.
The short reign of Galba commenced a. d. 68. But be this as it
may, here, seventeen feet under the present pavement of London,
are the traces of Roman life covered by the ashes of a ruined city,
and other walls built with the fragments of those ruins, and over
these the aggregated rubbish of eighteen centuries of inhabitancy.
The extent of Roman London, of the London founded or civilized,
burnt, rebuilt, extended by the busiest of people, may be traced by
the old walls, by the cemeteries beyond the walls, and by the re-
mains of ancient relics of utility and ornament constantly turned
up wherever the soil is dug into to a sufficient depth. Look upon
the plan of this Roman London (Fig. 158). The figures marked
upon the plan show the places where the Romans have been traced.
1. Shows the spot in Fleet Ditch where vases, coins, and imple-
ments were found after the Great Fire of 1666. In many other
parts were similar remains found on that occasion (Fig. 163). On
the plan, 2 shows the point where a sepulchral stone was found
at Ludgate, which is now amongst the Arundel Marbles at Oxford
(Fig. 160). In the plan, 3 marks the site of St. Paul's, where
many remains were found by Sir Christopher Wren, in digging
the foundation of the present Cathedral — the burial-place of " the
colony when Romans and Britons lived and died together " (Fig.
164). At the causeway at Bow Church, marked 4, Roman remains
were found after the Great Fire. At Guildhall, marked 5, tiles and
pottery were found in 1822. In Lothbury, in 1805, digging foi
the foundation of an extended portion of the Bank of England,
marked 6, a tessellated pavement was found, -which is now in the
British Museum. Other tessellated pavements have been found in
various parts of London, the finest specimens having been discovered
in 1803, in Leadenhall Street, near the portico of the India House,
(Fig. 161). The spot in Lombard Street and Birchin Lane,
where, previous to the discoveries in 1785 already mentioned, re-
mains had been found in 1730 and 1774, is marked 7 on the plan.
Some of these remains are represented in Fig. 166. In 1787
Roman coins and tiles were found at St. Mary at Hill, close by
the line of the Thames, marked 8. In 1824, near St. Dunstan's
in the East, on the same line, marked 9, were pavements and urns
found. In Long Lane, marked 10, a pavement has been found ; also
a tessellated pavement in Crosby Square, marked 11; a pavement
in Old Broad Street, marked 12 ; a tessellated pavement in Crutchcd
Friars, marked 16; a pavement in Northumberland Alley, marked
17. Sepulchral monuments have been found within the City wall,
as in Bishopsgate, in 1707, marked 14; and in the Tower, in 1777,
marked 15. But the great burial-places, especially of the Chris-
tianized Romans, were outside the wall ; as at the cemetery
beyond Bishopsgate, discovered in 1725, marked 13; that in Good-
man's Fields, marked 19, found in 1787 ; and that at Spitalfields,
marked 18, discovered as early as 1577. The old London antiquary,
Stow, thus speaks of this discovery : " On the east side of this
churchyard lieth a large field, of old time called Lolesworth, now
Spitalfield, which about the year 1576 was broken up for clay to

Chap. II. J

OLD ENGLAND.

51

make brick ; in the digging whereof many earthen pots culled
Urnae were found full of ashes, and burnt bones of men, to wit of
the Romans who inhabited here. For it was the custom of the
Komans to burn their dead, to put their ashes in an urn, and then
to bury the same with certain ceremonies, in some field appointed

for that purpose near unto their city There hath also

been found (in the same field) divers coffins of stone, containing
the bones of men ; these 1 suppose to be the burials of some special
persons, in time of the Britons or Saxons, after that the Komans
had left to govern here. Moreover there were also found the
skulls and bones of men without coffins, or rather whose coffins
(being of great timber) were consumed. Divers great nails of
iron were there found, such as are used in the wheels of shod carts,
being each of them as big as a man's finger, and a quarter of a yard
long, the heads two inches over."

The plan thus detailed indicates the general extent of Roman
London. Within thee limits every year adds something to the
mass of antiquities that have been turned up, and partially examined
and described, since the days when Stow saw the earthern pots in
Spitalfields. Traces of the old worship have at various times been
found. A very curious altar was discovered fifteen feet below the
level of the street in Foster Lane, Cheapside, in 1830. Attention
has recently been directed to a supposed Roman bath in Strand
Lane, represented in Fig. 159 (See 'London,' Vol. II.). But the
bed of the Thames has been as prolific as the highways that are
trampled upon, in disclosing to its excavators traces of the great
colonizers of England. Works of high art in silver and in bronze
were found in 1825 and 1837, embedded in the soil over which the
river has been rolling for ages. In the southern bank of the Thames
evidences have recently been discovered that parts of Southwark
contiguous to the river were occupied by the Romans, as well as
the great city on the opposite bank. Mr. Charles Roach Smith, in
a paper read to the Society of Antiquaries in 1841, says, "The
occurrence of vestiges of permanent occupancy of this locality by
the Romans, is almost uninterrupted from the river to St. George's
Church in the line of the present High Street." Mr. Smith is
decidedly of opinion that a considerable portion of Southwark
formed an integral part of Londinium, and that the two shores were
connected by a bridge. Mr. Smith holds, " First, that with such a
people as the Romans, and in such a city as Londinium, a bridge
would be indispensable; and, secondly, that it would naturally be
erected somewhere in the direct line of road into Kent, which I
cannot but think pointed toward the site of Old London Bridge,
both from its central situation, from the general absence of the
foundations of buildings in the approaches on the northern side,
and from discoveries recently made in the Thames on the line of
the old bridge." The bronzes, medallions, and coins found in the
line of the old bridge, which have been dredged up by the ballast-
heavers from their position, and the order in which they occur,
strongly support the opinion of Mr. Smith. The coins comprise
many thousands of a series extending from Julius Caesar to Honorius ;
and Mr. Smith infers "that the bulk of these coins might have
been intentionally deposited, at various periods, at the erection of a
bridge across the river, whether it were built in the time of Ves-
pasian, Hadrian, or Pius, or at some subsequent period, and that
they also might have been deposited at such times as the bridge
might require repairs or entire renovation."

The shrewd observer and sensible writer whom we have quoted
has a valuable remark upon the peculiar character of the Roman
antiquities of London: — "Though our Londinium cannot rival, in
remains of public buildings, costly statues, and sculptured sarcophagi
and altars, the towns of the mother-country, yet the reflective
antiquary can still find materials to work on, — can point to the
localities of the less obtrusive and imposing, but not less useful,
structures — the habitations of the mercantile and trading population
of this ever-mercantile town. The numerous works of ancient
art which have yet been preserved afford us copious materials
for studying the habits, manners, and customs of the Roman
colonists ; the introduction and state of many of the arts during
their long sojourn in Britain, and their positive or probable influence
on the British inhabitants. This is, in fact, the high aim and scope
of the science of antiquities — to study mankind through their works."

It is in this spirit that we would desire to look at the scattered
antiquities of ' Old England,' to whatever period they may belong.
Whenever man delves into the soil, and turns up a tile or an
earthen pot, a coin or a weapon, an inscription which speaks of
love for the dead, or an altar which proclaims the reverence for the
spiritual, in some form, however mistaken, we have evidences of
antique modes of life, in whose investigation we may enlarge the
narrow bounds of our own every-day life. Those who have

descended into the excavated streets of the buried Pompeii, and
have walked in subterranean ways which were once radiant with
the sunshine, and have entered houses whose paintings and
sculptures are proofs that here were the abodes of comfort and
elegance, where ta^te displayed itself in forms which cannot perish,
— such have beheld with deep emotion the consequences of a sudden
ruin which in a few hours made the populous city a city of the
dead. But when we pierce through the shell of successive
generations abiding in a great city like London, to bring to light
the fragments of a high state of civilization, crushed and overthrown
by change and spoliation, and forgotten amidst the trample of
successive generations of mankind in the same busy spot, the eye
may not so readily awaken the mind to solemn reflection ; but still
every fragment has its own lesson, which cannot be read unprofitably.
It is not the exquisite art by which common materials for common
purposes were moulded by a tasteful people, that can alone command
our admiration. A group of such is exhibited in Fig. 169. That
these are Roman is at once proclaimed by their graceful forms.
But mingled with these are sometimes found articles of inferior
workmanship and less tasteful patterns, which show how the
natives of the Roman colony had gradually emulated their arts
and were passing out of that state when the wants of life were
supplied without regard to the elegancies which belong to an
advanced civilization (see Fig. 168). The Romans put the mark
of their cultivated taste as effectually upon the drinking-cups and
the urns of the colonized Britons, compared with the earlier works
of the natives, as the emperor Hadrian put his stamp upon the pio-s
of lead which were cast in the British mines, and which may still
be seen in our national Museum (Figs. 165, 166, 167). The
bronze patera, or drinking-bowl, found in Wiltshire, marked with
the names of five Roman towns on its margin, was a high work of
Roman-British art (Figs. 152, 153, 154). The metal coating of
an ancient Roman-British shield, found in the bed of the river
AVitham, belongs to a lower stage of the same art (Fig. 171). The
British coin of Carausius (Fig. 173), of which a unique example
in gold is in the British Museum, and the coin of Constantine the
Great in the same collection (Fig. 172), each probably came out
of the Roman coin-mould (Fig. 170). After years of contest and
bloodshed, the Roman arts became the arts of Britain ; and when
our Shakspere made Iachimo describe the painting and the statuary of
Imogen's chamber, though the description might be an anachronism
with regard to Cymbeline, it was a just representation of the influence
of Roman taste on the home-life of Britain, when the intercourse of
the countries had become established, and the peaceful colonization
of those whose arts always followed in the wake of their arms, had
introduced those essentially Roman habits, of which we invariablv
find the relics when in our ancient cities we come to the subsoil on
which the old Britons trod.

A writer on early antiquities, Mr. King, to whom we have
several times referred, has a notion that the private dwellings of
the Romans, especially in this island, were not remarkable for
comfort or elegance, to say nothing of magnificence : " In most
instances a Roman Quaestor, or Tribune, sitting here in his to^a
on his moveable sella, or wallowing on his triclinium, on one of
those dull, dark, and at best ill-looking works of mosaic did
not, after all, appear with much more real splendour, as to any
advantages from the refinements of civilized life, than an old Scotch
laird in the Highlands, sitting in his plaid on a joint-stool, or on a
chair of not much better construction, in the corner of his rou^h,
rude, castle-tower." This is a bold assertion, and one that indicates
that the writer has no very clear perception of what constitutes the
best evidence of the existence of the " refinements of civilized life."
The first dull, dark, ill-looking work of mosaic, which Mr. King
describes, is a tessellated pavement, which he says " shows <*reac
design and masterly execution." The remains of villas discovered
in England have for the most part painted walls, even according to
Mr. King some proof of refinement, if all other proofs were absent.
But the rooms with the painted walls had no fire-places with chim-
neys, and must have been warmed when needful, " merelyr by hot
air from the adjoining hypocaust." This is a curious example of
the mutation of ideas in half a century. The Romans in Britain,
according to Mr. King, could have had no comfort or refinement,
because they had no open fires, and warmed their rooms with hot air.
The science of our own day says that the open fire and chimney
are relics of barbarism, and that comfort and refinement demand
the hot air. The remains of a hypocaust at Lincoln (Fig. 141)
alone indicate something beyond the conveniences possessed by the
old Scotch laird sitting on his joint-stool. But, in truth, the bare
inspection of the plan of any one of the Roman villas discovered in

II 2

?fiWQir-

1 30. -Arms and Costume of a Sax 311 Military Chief.

190.— Arms and Costume of an Anglo-Saxon King and Armour Bearer.

19 ».— Ringed Mail. Cotton MS. Claud. B. 4

195.— Anglo-Saxcn Mantle, Caps, and Weapons.

m— Costume of a Soldier. From Cotton MS. Tih. C. 6

101 —Arms anl Costume of the Tribes on the Western Shores of the Baltic.

52

192.— Arms and Costume of Danish Warriors.

196.— St. Michael's Church, St. Albans.

197.— St. Martin's Church, Canterbury.

199.— Iona.

300.— Quoiued Work. 20! .- Long and Short Work.

I 1

£=h [

J

202— Balustre. 203.-Arcb. 201.— Column and Capital.

WL

205.— Window.

206.— Window

2CT. — Sueno's I'illar at Forres.

198.— Eulns of the'Monastery of Iona, on I-Colurnb-Kill.

208 .—Crosses at Sandbach.

53

8 4

OLD ENGLAND.

| Book. I.

England will show that the colonizers brought here the same
tasteful arrangements of their private dwellings as distinguished
similar remains in the states wholly peopled by Romans. Vitruvius
has given us the general plan of a Roman villa (Fig. 176), which
we copy, that it may be compared with the plans of Roman villas
discovered in England. The most important of these is that at
Woodchester, near f«troud, in Gloucestershire, which was discovered
by Mr. Lysons in 1795 (Fig. 177). The plan of this remarkable
building, which Mr. Lysons has been able distinctly to trace, shows
that there was a large open court, or atriuin, marked b ; an inner
court, marked a ; and a smaller court in the wing, marked c. Round
these were grouped the various apartments and domestic offices, about
sixty in number. Mr. King seems to think somewhat meanly of
these apartments, as they seldom exceed twenty or twenty-five feet
in length, with a proportionate breadth ; and because " there is no
reason from any remaining traces of any sort or kind to suppose
there was ever a staircase in any part, or so much as one single
room above the ground-floor."

Another Roman villa, of which we have given the plan (Fig.
179), is described by the same indefatigable antiquary, Mr. Samuel
Lysons, who, in consequence of the accidental discovery of a mosaic
pavement at Bignor, in Sussex, in 1811, was enabled during that
year and the succeeding six years to trace the plan of a' building
of great extent and magnificence, with rich pavements and painted
walls. " Many of the ornaments and general style of the mosaic
work bear a striking resemblance to those of the pavements
discovered at Pompeii, which could not have been of a later date
than the reign of Titus." Sir Humphry Davy in some degree
confirms this opinion in a letter to Mr. Lysons : " I have examined
the colours found on the walls of the Roman house discovered at
Bignor, in Sussex ; and I find that they are similar in chemical
composition to those employed in the baths of Titus at Rome, and
in the houses and public buildings at Pompeii and Ilerculaneum."
We cannot have better evidence that the same arts of design, and
the same scientific means of ornament, were employed in Britain
as at Pompeii. Accomplished architects have been enabled, from
what remains tolerably entire in that buried city, to form a general
notion of the internal arrangements of a Roman house. "We present
such to our readers in the beautiful restorations of Mr. Poynter
(Figs. 174, 175, 180, and 181). The villa discovered at Great
Witcombe, in Gloucestershire, in 1818 (Fig. 178), exhibits the most
complete example of the remains of the Roman baths in this country,
several of the walls still existing, from four to five feet above the
level of the floors, and most of the doorways being preserved.

The influence of the Roman taste and science upon the domestic
architecture of the colonized Britons must no doubt have been
considerable. " The use of mortar, plaster, and cement, of the
various tools and implements for building, the art of making the
flat tiles, and all things connected with masonry and bricklaying, as
known and practised by the Romans, must of course in the progress
of their works, have been communicated to their new subjects ; and
it appears that, by the close of the third century, British builders
had acquired considerable reputation. The panegyrist Eumenius
tells us that when the Emperor Constantius rebuilt the city of
Autut), in Gaul, about the end of the third century, lie brought the
workmen chiefly frcm Britain, which very much abounded with the

best artificers." (' Pictorial History of England,' vol. i.) It would
appear, however, that although there can be no doubt that many
splendid buildings, such as Giraldus Cambrensis describes as having
seen in the twelfth century at Caerleon, were models for the suc-
cessors of the Romans, no remains of a very high style of art have
been discovered in Britain. Mr. Rickman says, " I think it is clear
that nothing very good of Roman work ever existed in Britain ; all
the fragments of architecture which have been discovered, whether
large or small, whether the tympanum of a temple, as found at
Bath, or small altars as found in many places. I believe they were
all deficient either in composition or in execution, or in both, and.
none that I know of have been better, if so good, as the debased
work of the Emperor Diocletian in his palace at Spalatro. "With
these debased examples, we cannot expect that the inhabitants of
Britain would (while harassed with continual intestine warfare) im-
prove on the models left by the Romans." (' Archoeologia,' vol.xxv.)
It is easy to understand how the Roman architecture of Britain
should not have been in the best taste. "When the island was
permanently settled under the Roman dominion, the arts had greatly
declined in Rome itself. In architecture, especially, the introduc-
tion of incongruous members, in combination with the general
forms derived from the Greeks, produced a corruption which was
rapidly advancing in the third century, and which continued to
spread till Roman architecture had lost nearly all its original
distinctive characters. The models which the Romans left in
Britain, to a people harassed with continual invasion and internal
dissension, were no doubt chiefly of this debased character. Of the
buildings erected for the Pagan worship of the Saxons we have no
traces. The re-establishment of Christianity by the conversion of
the Saxons was rapidly followed by the building of churches. What
was the nature of the material of these churches, whether any of
them still exist, whether portions even may yet be found in our
ecclesiastical buildings, have been fruitful subjects of antiquarian
discussion. There is somewhat of a fashion in such opinions. In
the last century, all churches with heavy columns and semicircular
arches were called Saxon. Some twenty years ago it was maintained
that we had no Saxon buildings at all. The present state of opinion
amongst unprejudiced inquirers is, we think, fairly represented in
the following candid argument of Mr. Rickman : " On that part
of our architectural history which follows the departure of the
Romans from Britain, and which precedes the Norman Conquest,
there is of course great obscurity ; but while in the days of Dr.
Stukeley, Horace "Walpole, &c, their appears to have been much
too easy an admission of Saxon dates on the mere appearance of the
semicircular arch, I think there has been of late perhaps too great
a leaning the other way ; and because we cannot directly prove that
certain edifices are Saxon, by documentary evidence, we have been
induced, too easily perhaps, to consider that no Saxon buildings did
exist, and have not given ourselves the trouble sufficiently to examine
our earlier Norman works to see if they were not some of them
entitled to be considered as erected before the Conquest." This is
the subject which we shall be called upon to illustrate in our next
chapter ; but in the mean time we refer to some of the details of
later Roman art, which we give at page 49 (Figs. 182— 1S8). It
is to these forms and arrangements that the architecture of the
Anglo-Saxons and Norman is to be traced as to a common source.

CiiAP. III.]

OLD ENGLAND.

55

The Standard of tlic White Horse.

CHAPTER III.— THE ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD.

N axe was to be laid to the
root of that prosperity which
Britain unquestionably enjoyed
under the established dominion
and protection of the Romans.
The military people whom
Caesar led to the conquest of
Gaul were, five hundred years
afterwards, driven back upon
Italy by hoicks of fierce in-
vaders, who swarmed wherever
plenty spread its attractions
tor wandering poverty. " The
blue-eyed myriads" first came to Britain as allies. The period
when they came was one of remarkable prosperity, according to the
old ecclesiastical chronicler, whose account of this revolution is the
most distinct which we possess. Bede says, that after the " Irish
Rovers " had returned home, and " the Picts " were driven to the
farthest part of the Island, through a vigorous effort of the unaided
Britons, the land " began to abound with such plenty of grain as
had never been known in any age before. With plenty, luxury
increased ; and this was immediately attended with all sorts of
crimes." Then followed a plague; and to repel the apprehended
incursions of the northern tribes, "they all agreed with their king,
Vortigern (Guorteryn), to call over to their aid, from the parts
beyond the sea, the Saxon nation." The standard of the White
Horse floated on the downs of Kent and Sussex; and the strange
people who bore it from the shores of the Baltic fixed it firmly
in the land, whose institutions they remodelled, whose name was
henceforth changed, whose language was merged in the tongue
which they spake. "Then the nation of the' Angles, or Saxons,
beino- invited by the aforesaid king, arrived in Britain with three
long ships, and had a place assigned them to reside in by the same
king, in the eastern part of the island, as it were to fight for their
country, but in reality to subdue this."

Britain was henceforth the land of the Angles — Engla-land,
Engle-land, Engle-lond. Little more than a century after the
settlement in, or conquest of, the country by the three nations of
the Jutes, the Saxons, and the Angles, the supreme monarch, or
Bretwalda, thus subscribed himself : — " Ego Ethelbertus, Rex
Analorum." The Angles and the Saxons were distinct nations,
and they subdued and retained distinct portions of the land.
But even the Saxon chiefs of "Wessex, when they had extended
their dominions into the kingdom of the Angles, called themselves
kings of Engla-land. In our own times we are accustomed to use

the term Anglo-Saxons, when we speak of the wars, the institutions,
the literature, and the arts of the people who for five centuries
were the possessors of this our England, and have left the impress
of their national character, their language, their laws, and their
religion upon the race that still tread the soil which they trod.

The material monuments which are left of these five centuries of
struggles for supremacy within, and against invasion from without,
of Paganism overthrowing the institutions of Christianized Britain
by the sword, and overthrown in its turn by the more lasting power
of a dominant church — of wise government, of noble patriotism,
vainly contending against a new irruption of predatory sea-kings, —
these monuments are few, and of doubtful o riff in. The Ans?lo-
Saxons have left their most durable traces in the institutions which
still mingle with the laws under which we live, — in the literature
which has their written language for its best foundation, — in the
useful arts which they cultivated, and which have descended to us as
our inheritance.

The most enduring monuments are the Manuscripts and the Illu-
minations produced by the patient labour of their spiritual teachers,
which we may yet open in our public libraries, and look upon with
as deep an interest as upon the fragments of the more perishable
labours of the architect and the sculptor. But of buildings, and
even the ornamented fragments of churches and of palaces, this
period has left us few remains in comparison with its long duration,
and the unquestionable existence of a high civilization during a
considerable portion of these five centuries. But it is possible that
these remains are not so few as we are taught to think. It has been
the fashion to believe that the invading Dane swept away all these
monuments of piety and of civil order ; that whatever of high anti-
quity after the Romans here exists, is of Norman origin. We have
probably yielded somewhat too readily to this modern belief. For
example, Bishop Wilfred, who lived in the seventh century, was a
great builder and restorer of churches, and Richard, Prior of Hexham,
who lived in the twelfth century, describes from his own observation
the church which Wilfred built at. Hexham. According to this
minute description, it was a noble fabric, with deep foundations,
with crypts, and oratories, of great height, divided into three several
stories or tiers, and supported by polished columns ; the capitals of
the columns were decorated with figures carved in stone ; the body
of the church was compassed about with pentices and porticoes.
Such a church we should now call Norman. Within the limits of
a work like ours it is impossible to discuss such matters of contro-
versy. We here only enter a protest against the belief that all
churches now existing with some of the characteristics of the church
of Wilfred, must be of the period after the Conquest.

"211.— Windows from the Talace of Westminster.

216.— Bosharn Chureh. From the B?.ycnr Tspestry.

219. — Egfrid, King of Northumberland, an d an Ecclesiastical
Synod offering the Bishopric of Hexham to St. CutbberU
MS. Life of Bede, a.d. 1200J

218.— Portrait of St. Dur.stan in full Archiepisoopa! Costume. Cotton MS.

3 —Silver Penny of Ceolnotb, Archbishop of Canterbury

224. -St. Dunstan. Royal MS.

223.- Golden Cross worn by St. Cuthbert. and found on Lis
body at the opening of his Tomb in 1827.

221.— Bishop and Priest.

822.-7 A'ibot Eunoth and, St. Augustine, Archbistop of Canterbury.
Harleian MS,

No. 8.

220. — St. Cu.hbert. From one of the external Canopies of the
Middle Tower of Durham.

57

58

OLD ENGLAND.

[Book L.

When Johnson and Boswell visited Iona, or Icolm-kill, the less
imaginative traveller was disappointed : — " I must own that Icolm-
kill did not answer my expectations There are only ?ome

grave-stones flat 0:1 the earth, and we could see no inscriptions.
How far short was this of marble monuments, like those in West-
minster Abbey, which I had imagined here!" So writes the matter-
of-fact Boswell. But Johnson, whose mind was filled with the
various knowledge that surrounded the barren island with great and
holy associations, had thoughts which shaped themselves into sen-
tences often quoted, but too appropriate to the objects of this work
not to be quoted once more : —

" We were now treading that illustrious island which was once
the luminary of the Caledonian regions, whence savage clans and
roving barbarians derived the benefits of knowledge and the
blessing of religion. To abstract the mind from all local emotion
would be impossible if it were endeavoured, and would be foolish if
it were possible. Whatever withdraws us from the power of our
senses, whatever makes the past, the distant, or the future, pre-
dominate over the present, advances us in the dignity of thinking
beings. Far from me, and from my friends, be such frigid philoso-
phy as may conduct us indifferent and unmoved over any ground
which has been dignified by wisdom, bravery, or virtue ! That
man is little to be envied whose patriotism would not gain force
upon the plain of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer
among the ruins of lona."

"The ruins of Iona" are not the ruins of " Saint Columba's
cell," of that monastery which the old national Saint of Scotland
founded in the midst of wide waters, when he came from the shores
of Ireland to conquer a rude and warlike people by the power of the
Gospel of peace; to preach with his followers "such works of
charity and piety as they could learn from the prophetical, evange-
lical, and apostolical writings ;" and, in addition to this first sacred
duty, to be the depositaries of learning and the diffusers of know-
ledge. The walls amidst whose shelter Columba lived, training his
followers by long years of discipline to the fit discharge of their
noble office, have been swept away ; the later erections are crumbling
into nothingness (Figs. 198, 199); the burial-place of the Scottish
kings is overgrown with rank weeds, and their tombs lie broken and
'defaced amidst fragments of monumental stones of the less illus-
trious dead. Silent and deserted is this "guardian of their bones."
The miserable hovels of a few fishermen contain the scanty population
of an island which was once trodden by crowds of the noble and
the learned. Here the highest in rank once came to bow before
the greater eminence of exalted piety and rare knowledge. To be an
inmate of the celebrated monastery of Iona was to gain a reputation
through the civilized world. This was not the residence of lazy
monks, as we are too much accustomed to call all monks, but of
men distinguished for the purity and simplicity of their lives, and
by the energy and disinterestedness of their labours. Iona sent forth
her missionaries into every land from which ignorance and idolatry
were to be banished by the workings of Christian love. When the
bark that contained a little band of these self-devoted men went
forth upon the stormy seas that beat around these western isles, to
seek in distant lands the dark seats where Druidism still lingered,
or the fiercer worship of Odin lifted its hoarse voice of war and
desolation, then the solemn prayer went up from the sacred choir
for the heavenly guidance of " those who travel by land or sea."
When the body of some great chief was embarked at Corpach, on
the mainland, and the waters were dotted with the boats that crowded
round the funeral bark, then the chants of the monks were heard
far over the sea, like the welcome to some hospitable shore, breathing
hope and holy trust. Such are the materials for the " local emo-
tion " which is called forth by " the ruins of Iona ;" and such emo-
tion, though the actual monuments that are associated with it like
these are shapeless fragments, is to be cherished in many a spot of
similar sanctity, where, casting aside all minor differences of opinion,
we know that the light of truth once shone there amidst surrounding
darkness, and that " one bright, particular star" there beamed before
the dawning.

We have already quoted Bede's interesting narrative of the
arrival of Augustine in the Isle of Thanet (p. 34). The same
authentic writer subsequently tells us of the lives of Augustine and
his fellow -missionaries at Canterbury : " There was in the east side
near the cily a church dedicated to the honour of St. Martin,
formerly built whilst the Romans were still in the island, wherein
the queen (Bertha), who, as has been said before, was a Christian,
used to pray. In this they at first began to meet, to sing, to pray,
to say mass, to preach, and to baptize; till the king being converted
to the faith, they had leave granted them more freely to preach,
and build or repair churches in all places." On " the east side of

the city " of Canterbury still stands the church of St. Martin. Its
windows belong to various periods of Gothic architeciure ; its
external walls are patched after the barbarous fashion of modern
repairs ; it is deformed within by wooden boxes to separate the
rich from the poor, and by ugly monumental vanities, miscalled
sculpture; but the old walls are full of Roman bricks, relics, at
any rate, of the older fabric where Bertha and Augustine " used to
pray " (Fig. 197). Some have maintained that this is the identical
Roman church which Bede describes ; and tradition has been pretty
constant in the belief that it is as old as the second century. Mr.
King has his own theory upon the matter: "Some have supposed it
to have been built by Roman Christians, of the Roman soldiery ;
but if that had been the case, there would surely have been found
in it the regular alternate coursss of Roman bricks. Instead of
this, the chancel is found to be built almost entirely of Roman
bricks ; and the other parts with Roman bricks and other materials,
irregularly intermixed. There is therefore the utmost reason to
think that it was built as some imitation only of Roman structures
by the rude Britons, before their workmen became so skilful in
Roman architecture as they were afterwards rendered, when
regularly employed by the Romans." Whether a British, a
Roman, or a Saxon church, here is a church of the highest
antiquity in the island, rendered memorable by its associations with
the narrative of the old ecclesiastical historian. There is a
remarkable font in this church — a stone font with rude carved-work,
resembling a great basin, and standing low on the floor. Such a font
was adapted to the mode of baptism in the primitive times. In such
a church might Augustine and his followers have sung and prayed ;
in such a font might Augustine have baptized. Venerated, then,
be the spot upon which stands the little church of St. Martin.
It is a pleasant spot on a gentle elevation. The lofty towrsrs and
pinnacles of the great Cathedral rise up at a little distance ; the
County Infirmary and the County Prison stand about it. It was
from this little hill, then, that a sound went through the land
which, in a few centuries, called up those glorious edifices which
attest the piety and the magnificence of our forefathers ; which, in
our own days, has raised up institutions for the relief of the sick
and the afflicted poor ; but which has not yet banished those dismal
abodes which frown upon us in every great city, where society
labours, and labours in vain, to correct and eradicate crime by
restraint and punishment. Something is still wanting to make the
teaching which, more than twelve centuries ago, went forth
throughout the land from this church of St. Martin, as effectual as
its innate purity and truth ought to render it. The teaching has
not even to this day penetrated the land. It is heard at stated
seasons in consecrated places ; it is spoken about in our parish schools,
whence a scanty knowledge is distributed amongst a rapidly-
increasing youthful population, in a measure little adapted to the
full and effectual banishment of ignorance. Our schools are few ;
our prisons are many. The work which Augustine and his fol-
lowers did is still to do ; but it is a work which a state that has spent
eight hundred millions in war thinks may yet be postponed. The
time may come, if that work be postponed too long, when the teachers
of Christian knowledge may as vainly strive against the force of the
antagonist principle, as the monks of Bangor strove, with prayer
and anthem,

" When the heathen trumpets' clang
Bound beleaguer'd Chester rang."

Whilst we are disputing in what way the people shall be taught,
ignorance is laying aside its ordinary garb of cowardice ana
servility, and is putting on its natural properties of insolence and
ferocity. Let us set our hand to the work which is appointed for
us, before it be too late to work to a good end, if to do this work
at all.

Camden describes a place upon the estuary of the Ilumber which,
although a trivial place in modern days, is dear to every one familiar
with our old ecclesiastical history : " In the Roman times, not far
from its bank upon the little river Foulness (where Wighton, a
small town, but well stocked with husbandmen, now stands), there
seems to have formerly stood Delgovitia; as is probable both from
the likeness and the signification of the name. For the British
word Delgive (or rather Ddehv) signifies the statues or images of
the heathen gods ; and in a little village not far off there stood an
idol-temple, which was in very great honour even in the Saxon
times, and, from the heathen gods in it, was then called God-mund-
ingham, and now, in the same sense, Godmanham." This is the
place which witnessed the conversion to Christianity of Edwin, King
of Northumbria. The whole story of this conversion, as told by
Bede, is one of those episodes that we call superstitious, in which
history reflects the confiding faith of popular tradition, which does

Chap. 111. J

OLD ENGLANJ).

53

not resign itself tc the belief that all worldly events depend solely
upon material influences. But one portion of this story lias the
best elements of high poetry in itself, and has therefore gained
little by being versified even by Wordsworth. Edwin held a council
of his wise men, to inquire their opinion of the new doctrine which
was taught by the missionary Paulinus. In this council one thus
addressed him: "The present life of man, O King, seems to me,
in comparison of that time which is unknown to us, like to a spar-
row swiftly flying through the room, well warmed with the fire
made in the midst of it, wherein you sit at supper in the winter,
with commanders and ministers, whilst the storms of rain and snow
prevail abroad ; the sparrow, I say, flying in at one door, and im-
mediately out at another, whilst he is within is not affected with
the winter storm ; but after a very brief interval of what is to him
fair weather and safety, lie immediately vanishes ou-t of your sight,
returning from one winter to another. So this life of man appears
for a moment ; but of what went before, or what is to follow,
we are utterly ignorant. If, therefore, this new doctrine contains
something more certain, it seems justly to deserve to be followed."
Never was a familiar image more beautifully applied ; never was
there a more striking picture of ancient manners— the storm without,
the fire in the hall within, the king at supper with his great men
around, the open doors through which the sparrow can flit. To this
poetical counsellor succeeded the chief priest of the idol-worship,
Coifi. He declared for the new faith, and advised that the heathen
altars should be destroyed. "Who," exclaimed the king, "shall
first desecrate their altars and their temples ?" The priest answered,
" I ; for who can more properly than myself destroy these things
that I worshipped through ignorance, for an example to all others,
through the wisdom given me by the true God ?"

"Prompt transformation works the novel lore.
The Council closed, the priest in full career
Rides forth, an armed man, and hurls a spear
To desecrate the fane which heretofore
He served in folly. Woden falls, and Tlior
Is overturned."

Wordsworth.

The altars and images which the priest of Northumbria
overthrew have left no monuments in the land. They were not
built, like the Druidical temples, under the impulses of the great
system of faith which, dark as it was, had its foundations in
spiritual aspirations. The pagan worship which the Saxons brought
to this land was chiefly cultivated under its sensual aspects. The
Valhalla, or heaven of the brave, was a heaven of fighting and
feasting, of full meals of boar's flesh, and large draughts of mead.
Such a future called not for solemn temples, and altars where the
lowly and the M'eak might kneel in the belief that there Avas a
heaven for them, as well as for the mighty in battle. The idols
frowned, and the people trembled. But this worship has marked
us, even to this hour, with the stamp of its authority. Our Sunday
is still the Saxon Sun's-day ; our Monday the Moon's-day ; our
Tuesday Tuisco's-day ; our Wednesday Woden's-day ; our Thursday
Thor's-day ; oar Friday Friga's-day ; our Saturday Seater's-day.
This is one of the many examples of the incidental circumstances
of institutions surviving the institutions themselves — an example of
itself sufficient to show the folly of legislating against established
customs and modes of thought. The French republicans, with
every aid from popular intoxication, could not establish their
calendar for a dozen years. The Pagan Saxons have fixed their
names of the week-days upon Christian England for twelve centuries,
and probably for as long as England shall be a country.

Some of the material monuments of the ages after the departure
of the Romans, and before the Norman conquest, are necessarily
obscure in their origin and objects. It was once the custom to
refer some of the remains which we now call Druidical to the
period when Saxon and Danes were fighting for the possession of
the land — trophies of battle and of victory. There are some
monuments to which this origin is still assigned ; and such an
origin has been ascribed to the remarkable stone at Forres, called
Sueno's Pillar (Fig. 207). It is a block of granite twenty-five
feet in height, and nearly four feet in breadth at its base. It is
sculptured in the most singular manner, with representations of men
and horses in military array and warlike attitudes ; some holding
up their shields in exultation, others joining hands in token of
fidelity. There is to be seen also the fight and the massacre of the
prisoners; and the whole is surmounted by something like an
elephant. On the other side of this monument is a large cross,
with figures of persons in authority in amicable conference. It lias
been held that all this represents the expulsion of some Scandinavian

adventurers from Scotland, who had long infested the country
about the promontory of Burghead, and refers also to a subsequent
peace between Malcolm, King of Scotland, and Sueno, King of
Norway. Be this as it may, the cross denotes the monument to
belong to the Christian period, though its objects were anything
but devotional. Not so the crosses at Sandbacli, in Cheshire.
These are, no doubt, works of early piety; and they are stated- by
Mr. Lysons to belong to a period not long subsequent to the intro-
duction of Christianity amongst the Anglo-Saxons (Fig. 208.)
If so, we may regard them with no common interest ; for the greater
monuments of that century, after the arrival of Augustine, when
Christianity vvas spread throughout the land, are, as far as we
know and are taught to believe, almost utterly perished. Brixwoi th
Church, in Northamptonshire, which has been so subjected to
alteration upon alteration that an engraving would furnish no
notion of its peculiar early features, is considered by some to have
been erected in the time of the Romans. But this very ancient
specimen of ecclesiastical architecture would scarcely be so
interesting, even if its date were clearly proved, as the decided
remains of some church or monastic buildings of the sixth or seventh
centuries — even of some building contemporary with our illustrious
Alfred. There may be such ; but antiquarianism is a jealous and
suspicious questioner, and calls for evidence at every step. We
are told by an excellent authority that " an interesting portion of
the Saxon church erected by Paulin is, or Albert, [at York] has
been recently brought to light beneath the choir of the present
cathedral." (Mr. Wellbeloved, in 'Penny Cyclopaedia.') This
church, founded by Edwin soon after his baptism, was undoubtedly
a stone building ; and it marks the progress of the arts in this
century, that in 669 Bishop Wilfred glazed the windows. The
glass for this purpose neems to have been imported from abroad,
since the famous Benedict Biscop, Abbot of Wearmouth, is recorded
as the first who brought artificers skilled in the art of making
glass into this country from France. (' Pictorial History of
England,' vol. i.)

Wilfred found the church of York in a ruinous state, on taking
possession of the see. He roofed it with lead ; he put glass in the
place of the ancient lattice-work. Time has brought to light
some relics of this church at York, buried beneath the nobler Cathe-
dral of a later age. It is probable that the more ancient churches
were as much removed and changed by the spirit of ecclesiastical
improvement as by the course of civil strife. One generation
repaired, amended, swept away the work of previous generations.
We have seen this process in our own times, when marble columns
have been covered with plaster, and the decorated window with its
gorgeous tracory replaced by a villanous casement. The Norman
church-builders did not so improve upon the Saxon ; but it is still
to be regretted that even their improvements, and those of the
builders who again remodelled the Norman work, have left us so
little that we can rely upon for a very high antiquity. It would be
something to look upon the church at Ripon which Wilfred built
of polished stone, and adorned with various columns and porticoes ;
or upon that at Hexham, which was proclaimed to have no equal
on this side the Alps. It would be something to find some frag-
ment of the paintings which Benedict Biscop brought from Rome
to adorn his churches at Wearmouth and at Yarrow ; but they
perished with his library under the ravaging Danes. More than
all, we should desire to look upon some fragment, of that church
which the good and learned Aldhelm built at Malmesbury, and
whose consecration he has himself celebrated in Latin verses
of considerable spirit. He was a poet, too, in his vernacular
tongue ; and he applied his poetry and his knowledge of music
to higher objects than his own gratification. The great Alfred
himself entered into his note-book the following anecdote of the
enlightened Abbot, which William of Malmesbury relates : —
" Aldhelm had observed with pain that the peasantry Mere become
negligent in their religious duties, and that no sooner was the
church service ended than they all hastened to their homes and
labours, and could with difficulty be persuaded to attend to the
exhortations of the preacher. He watched the occt. >ion, and sta-
tioned himself in the character of a minstrel on the bridge over
which the people had to pass, and soon collected a crowd of hearers
by the beauty of his verse. When lie found that he had gained
possession of their attention, he gradually introduced among the
popular poetry which he was reciting to them, words of a more
serious nature, till at length he succeeded in impressing upon their
minds a truer feeling of religious devotion." (Wright's ' Biographia
Britannica Literaria.') Honoured be the memory of the good
Abbot of Malmesbury !

The identical bridge upon which the minstrel stood has long

12

ymM,

c

I

a&i

227— Saxon Emblems of the Monlh of January.

0k\
©

& ©

229.— Residence of a Saxon Nobleman.

■<m.

GO

222,— Sason EmtpUms of/thi Month of February.

238.— Ploughing, Sowing, Mowing, Gleaning, Measuring Corn, and Harvest-Supper.

•

23?.— Saxon Emblems of the Month of April

61

62

OLD ENGLAND.

[Book L

ago fallen into the narrow stream ; the church to which the preacher
invited the people by gentle words and sweet sounds has been
supplanted by a nobler church, surrounded by the ruins of a gorgeous
fabric of monastic splendour. AVe may not believe, say the anti-
quaries, that the wonderful porches and the intersecting arches of
Malmesbury are of Saxon origin. But, in spite of the antiquaries,
they must be associated with the beautiful memory of Aldhelm.
His name is not now spoken in that secluded town ; but the people
there have still their Saxon memories of ancient days. The poor,
who have extensive common-rights, say that they owe them all to
King Athelstan ; the humble children who learn to read in an
ancient building called the Hall Of St. John, connect their instruc-
tion with the memory of some great man of old. who wished that
the poor should be taught and the indigent relieved, — for over the
ancient porch under which they enter is recorded that a worthy
burgher of Malmesbury in 1694 left ten pounds annually to instruct
the poor, in addition to a like donation from King Athelstan! We
wish that throughout the land there were more such living memorials
of the past, even though they were the mere shadows of tradition.
It is well for the lowly cottagers of Malmesbury that they are in
blissful ignorance that the monument of their Saxon benefactor, in
the restored choir of their Abbey Church, belongs to a later period.
They look upon that recumbent effigy with reverence — they keep
the annual feast of Athelstan with rejoicing. The hero-worship of
Malmesbury is that of Athelstan. It has come down from the days
of Saxon song, when the victories of the grandson of Alfred were
thus celebrated : —

"Here Athelstan, King,
of earth the lord,

the giver of the bracelets of the nobles,
and his brother also,
Edmund the iEtheling,
the Elder, a lasting glory
won by slaughter in battle
with the edges of swords
at Brunenburgh.
The wall of shields they cleaved,
They hewed the nobles' banners."

But Athelstan left the memory of something better than victories.
He was a lawgiver; and there are traces in his additions to the Code
of Alfred of a public provision for the destitute amongst his subjects.
The traditions of Malmesbury have, we doubt not, a solid founda-
tion. He was a scholar, and collected a library for his private use.
Some of these books were preserved at Bath up to the period of the
Reformation ; two of these precious manuscripts are in the Cotton
Collection in the British Museum. The Gospels upon which the
Saxon Kings are held to have taken their Coronation oath is one of
them (see Fac-simile of the 1st Chapter of St. John, Fig. 226).
It is not only at Malmesbury that the memory of Athelstan is to be
venerated.

We have already alluded to the change of opinion which is

beginning to take place with regaul to the remains of Saxon

architecture existing in this country (p. 54). We do not

profess to discuss controverted points, which would be of slight

interest to the general reader ; and we shall therefore find it the

safer course to describe our earliest cathedrals, and other grand

ecclesiastical structures, under the Norman period. But it is now

pretty generally admitted that many of our humble parish churches

may be safely referred to dates before the conquest ; and some of

the characteristic features of these we shall now proceed to notice.

We believe, curious as this question naturally is, and especially

interesting as it must be at the present day, when our ecclesiastical

antiquities are become objects of such wide-spreading interest, that

no systematic attempt to fix the chronology of the earliest church

architecture has yet been made. In 1833 Mr. Thomas Rickman

thus wrote to the Society of Antiquaries : — " I was much impressed

by a conversation I had with an aged and worthy dean, who was

speaking on the subject of Saxon edifices, with a full belief that

they were numerous. He asked me if I had investigated those

churches which existed in places where 'Domesday-Book' states

that a church existed in King Edward's days ; and I was obliged

to confess I had not paid the systematic attention I ought to have

done to this point ; and I now wish to call the attention of the

Society to the propriety of having a list made of such edifices, that

they may be carefully examined." We are not aware that the

Society has answered the call ; but the course suggested by the

aged and worthy dean was evidently a most rational course, and it

is strange that it had been so long neglected. ' Domesday-Book '

records what churches existed in the days of Edward the Confessor;

— does any church exist in the same place now? if so, what is the
character of that church? To procure answers is not a difficult
labour to set about by a Society ; but it is probable that it will be
accomplished, if at all, by individual exertion. Mr. Rickman has
himself done something considerable towards arriving at the same
conclusions that a wider investigation would, we believe, fully
establish. In 1834 he addressed to the Society of Antiquaries
' Further Observations on the Ecclesiastical Architecture of France
and England,' in which the characteristics of Saxon remains are
investigated with professional minuteness, with reference to buildings
which the writer considers were erected before the year 1010: —

" As to the masonry, there is a peculiar sort of quoining, which
is used without plaster as well as with, consisting of a long stone
set at the corner, and a short one lying on it, and bounding one
way or both into the wall ; when plaster is used, these quoins are
raised to allow for the thickness of the plaster. Another peculiarity
is the use occasionally of very large and heavy blocks of stone in
particular parts of the work, while the rest is mostly of small
stones; the use of what is called Roman bricks: and occasionally
of an arch with straight sides to the upper part, instead of curves.
The want of buttresses may be here noticed as being general in
these edifices, an occasional use of portions with mouldings, much
like Roman, and the use in windows of a sort of rude balustre.
The occasional use of a rude round staircase, west of the tower, for
the purpose of access to the upper floors ; and at times the use of
rude carvings, much more rude than the generality of Norman work,
and carvings which are clear imitations of Roman work. . .

" From what I have seen, I am inclined to believe that there
are many more churches which contain remains of this character,
but they are very difficult to be certain about, and also likely to be
confounded with common quoins, and common dressings in counties
where stone is not abundant, but where flint, rag, and rough rubble
plastered over, form the great extent of walling.

" In various churches it has happened that a very plain arch
between nave and chancel has been left as the only Norman feature,
while both nave and chancel have been rebuilt at different times,
but each leaving the chancel arch standing. I am disposed to think,
that some of these plain chancel arches will, on minute examination,
turn out to be of this Saxon style."

Mr. Rickman then gives a list of " twenty edifices in thirteen
counties, and extending from Whittingham, in Northumberland,
north, to Sompting, on the coast of Sussex, south ; and from Barton
on the H umber, on the coast of Lincolnshire, east, to North Bur-
combe, on the west." He justly observes, " This number of churches,
extending over so large a space of country, and bearing a clear
relation of style to each other, forms a class much too important and
extensive to be referred to any anomaly or accidental deviation."
Since Mr. Rickman's list was published many other churches have
been considered to have the same " clear relation of style." We shall
therefore notice a few only of the more interesting.

The church of Earl's Barton, in Northamptonshire, is a work of
several periods of our Gothic architecture; but the tower is now
universally admitted to be of Saxon construction (Fig. 209). It
exhibits many of the peculiarities recognised as the characteristics
of this architecture. 1st, We have the " long stone set at the corner,
and a short one lying on it" — the long and short work, as it is com-
monly called (Fig. 201). These early churches and towers some-
times exhibit, in later portions, the more regular quoined work in
remarkable contrast (Fig. 200). 2nd, The Tower of Earl's Barton
presents the "sort of rude balustre, such as might be supposed to
be copied by a very rough workman by remembrance of a Roman
balustre" (Fig. 202). 3rd, It shows the form of the triangular arch,
which, as well as the balustre, are to be seen in Anglo-Saxon
manuscripts. 4th, It exhibits, " projecting a few inches from the
surface of the wall, and running up vertically, narrow ribs, or
square-edged strips of stone, bearing, from their position, a rude
similarity to pilasters." (Bloxam's 'Gothic Ecclesiastical Archi-
tecture.') The writer of the valuable manual we have quoted adds,
" The towers of the churches of Earl's Barton and Barnack, North-
amptonshire, and one of the churches of Barton-upon-IIumber,
Lincolnshire, are so covered with these narrow projecting strips of
stonework, that the surface of the wall appears divided into rudely
formed panels." 5th, The west doorway of this tower of Earl's
Barton, as well as the doorway of Barnack, exhibit something like
" a rude imitation of Roman mouldings in the impost and archi-
trave." The larger openings, such as doorways, of these early
churches generally present the semicircular arch ; but the smaller,
such as windows, often exhibit the triangular arch (Figs. 20i>s
205). The semicircular arch is, however, found in the windows
of some churches as well as the straight-lined, as at Sompting, in

Chap. III. J

OLD ENGLAND.

63

Sussex (Fig. 206). In this church the doorway has a column with |
a rude capital, "having much of a Roman character" (Fig. 204).
A doorway remaining of the old palace at Westminster exhibits the i
triangular arch (Fig. 212). The windows of the same building
present the circular arch, with the single zigzag moulding j

(Fig. 211).

Mr. Rickman has mentioned the plain arch which is sometimes
found between the chancel and nave, which he supposes to be Saxon.
In some churches arches of the same character divide the nave from
the aisles. Such is the case in the ancient church of St. Michael's,
St. Alban's, of the interior of which we give an engraving (Fig.
196). The date of this church is now confidently held to be the
tenth century, receiving the authority of Matthew Paris, who states
that it was erected by the Abbot of St. Alban's in 948.

The church at Bosham, in Sussex, which is associated with the
memory of the unfortunate Harold, is represented in the Bayeux
tapestry, of which we shall hereafter have fully to speak (Fig. 21G).
It is now held that the tower of the " church is of that construction
as to leave little doubt of its being the same that existed when the
church was entered by Harold."

It would be tedious were we to enter into any more minute
description of the Anglo-Saxon ecclesiastical remains. The subject,
however, is still imperfectly investigated : and the reader will be
startled by the opposite opinions that he will encounter if his in-
quiries conduct him to the more elaborate works which touch upon
this theme. It is singular that, admitting some works to be Saxon,
the proof which exists in the general resemblance of other works is
not held to be satisfactory, without it is corroborated by actual date.
Mr. Britton, for example, to whom every student of our national
antiquities is under deep obligation, especially for having rescued
their delineation from tasteless artists, to present them to our own
age with every advantage of accurate drawing and exquisite en-
graving, thus describes the portion of Edward the Confessor's work
at Westminster which is held to be of the later Saxon age ; but he
admits, with the greatest reluctance, the possibility of the existence
of other Saxon works, entire, which earlier antiquaries called Saxon.
('Architectural Antiquities,' vol. v.) The engraving, Fig. 210,
illustrates Mr. Britton's description : —

" There are considerable remains of one building yet standing,
though now principally confined to vaults and cellaring, which may
be justly attributed to the Saxon era, since there can be no doubt
that they once formed a part of the monastic edifices of Westminster
Abbey, probably the church, which was rebuilt by Edward the
Confessor in the latter years of his life. These remains compose
the east side of the dark and principal cloisters, and range from the
college dormitory on the south to the Chapter-house on the north.
The most curious part is the vaulted chamber, opening from the
principal cloister, in which the standards for the trial of the Pix
are kept, under the keys of the Chancellor of the Exchequer and
other officers of the Crown. The vaulting is supported by plain
groins and semicircular arches, which rest on a massive central
column, having an abacus moulding, and a square impost capital,
irregularly fluted. In their original state, these remains, which are
now subdivided by several cross walls, forming store-cellars, &c,
appear to have composed only one apartment, about one hundred
and ten feet in length and thirty feet in breadth, the semicircular
arches of which were partly sustained by a middle row of eight
ehurt and massive columns, with square capitals diversified by a
difference in the sculptured ornaments. These ancient vestiges now
form the basement story of the College School, and of a part of the
Dean and Chapter's Library."

One of tiie most curious representations of an Anglo-Saxon
Church is found in a miniature accompanying a Pontifical in the
Public Library at Eouen, which gives the Order for the Dedication
and consecration of Churches. (See Fig. 215, where the engraving
is accurately stated to be from the Cotton MS.) This miniature,
which is in black outline, represents the ceremony of dedication.
The bishop, not wearing the mitre, but bearing his pastoral staff, is
in the act of knocking at the door of the church with this symbol
of his authority. The upper group, behind the bishop, represents
priests and monks; the lower group exhibits the laity, who were
accustomed to assemble on sucli occasions with solemn rejoicing.
The barrels are supposed to contain the water which was to be
blessed and used in the dedication. The form of the church, and
the accessories of its architecture, are very curious. The perspec-
tive is altogether false, so that we see two sides of the building
at the same time ; and the proportionate size of the parts is quite
disregarded, so that the door reaches almost to the roof. But the
form of the towers, the cock on the steeple, the ornamental iron-work
of the door, show how few essential changes have been produced in

eight hundred or a thousand years. Some ascribe the date of this
manuscript to the eighth century, and others to the close of the
tenth century. The figures of the bishop and priest (Fig. 221)
are from the same curious relic of Anglo-Saxon art ; for all agree
that this Pontifical is of English origin. In the ' Archaiologia,'
vol. xxv., is a very interesting description of this manuscript, in a
letter from John Gage, Esq. The writer, in his introductory
remarks, gives some particulars of the ancient practice of the dedi-
cation of churches : —

" Gregory the Great, in his instructions to St. Augustine, bade
him not destroy the Pagan temples, but the idols within them;
directing the precinct to be purified with holy water, altars to be
raised, and sacred relics deposited ; and because the English were
accustomed to indulge in feasts to their gods, the prudent Pontiff
ordained the day of dedication, or the day of the nativity of the
Saint in whose honour the Church should be dedicated, a festival
when the people might have an opportunity of assembling, as before
in green bowers round their favourite edifice, and enjoy something
of former festivity. This was the origin of our country wakes
rush-bearings, and church ales." When Archbishop Wilfred had
built his church at Ripon, the dedication was attended by Egfrid,
King of Northumbria, with his brother J£lwin, and the great men
of his kingdom. The church was dedicated, the altar consecrated,
the people came and received communion ; and then the Archbishop
enumerated the lands with which the church was endowed. After
the ceremony the King feasted the people for three days. The
dedication of the church at Winchelcumbe was marked by an event
which showed that the Christian morality did not evaporate in ritual
observances. Kenulf, King of Mercia, with Bishops and Ealdor-
men, was present, and he brought with him Eadbert, the captive
King of Kent. "At the conclusion of the ceremony, Kenulf led
his captive to the altar, and as an act of clemency granted him his
freedom." This was a more acceptable offering than his distribu-
tion of gold •uid silver to priests and people. The dedication of the
conventual church at Ramsey is described by the Monk of Ramsey,
who gives some curious details of the architectural construction of
a former church. In 939 a church had been founded by the Eal-
dorman Aylwin, which is recorded to have been " raised on a solid
foundation, driven in by the battering ram, and to have had two
towers above the roof : the lesser was in front, at the west end ; the
greater, at the intersection of the four parts of the building rested
on four columns, connected together by arches carried from one to
the other. In consequence, however, of a settlement in the centre
tower, which threatened ruin to the rest of the building, it became
necessary, shortly after the church was finished, to take down the
whole and rebuild it." The dedication of this church was accom-
panied by a solemn recital of its charter of privileges. " Then
placing his right hand on a copy of the Gospels, Aylwin swore to
defend the rights and privileges, as well of Ramsey, as of other
neighbouring churches which were named."

But the narrative of the circumstances attending the original
foundation of this church, as related by Mr. Sharon Turner from
the ' History of the Monk of Ramsey,' are singularly instructive as
to the impulses winch led the great and the humble equally to
contribute to the establishment of monastic institutions. They
were told that the piety of the men who had renounced the world
brought blessings on the country ; they were urged to found such
institutions, and to labour in their erection. Thus was the Eal-
donnan, who founded the church of Ramsey, instructed by Bishop
Oswald ; and to the spiritual exhortation the powerful mat] was not
indifferent.

"The Ealdorman replied, that he had some hereditary land
surrounded with marshes, and remote from human intercourse.
It was near a forest of various sorts of trees, which had several
open spots of good turf, and others of fine grass for pasture. No
buildings had been upon it but some sheds for his herds, who had
manured the soil. They went together to view it. They found
that the waters made it an island. It was so lonely, and yet had
so many conveniences for subsistence and secluded devotion, that
the bishop decided it to be an advisable station. Artificers were
collected. The neighbourhood joined in the labour. Twelve
monks came from another cloister to form the new fraternity.
Their cells and a chapel were soon raised. In the next winter
they provided the iron and timber, and utensils, that were wanted
for a handsome church. In the spring, amid the fenny soil, a firm
foundation was laid. The workmen laboured as much for devotion
as for profit. Some brought the stones ; others made the cement;
others applied the wheel machinery that raised the stones on high ;
and in a reasonable time the sacred edifice with two towers appeared,
on what had been before a desolate waste." Wordsworth has made

245. — Saxon Emblems of the Month of May.

/fee \ I

Tj

248.— TroTntor.es, or Flutes. From the Cotton
MS. Cleopatra.

247.— Dinner Parly. Cotton MS.

249.— Drinking from Cotto' Herns. Cotton MS.

hr^ 4-1-1- *< '

to
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a
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04

246.— Saxon Emblems of the Month of June.

w?

•y.

3

CO

t

25 J.— Saxon Emblems of the month of July.

255. — Tbi-eshing and Winnowing Corn.

c

to

W

c

258.— Saxon emblems of the month of August.

No. 9.

6S

66

OLD ENGLAND.

this description the foundation of one of his fine ' Ecclesiastical
Sketches :' —

" By such examples moved to unbought pains,
'J' ho people work like congregated bees ;
Eager to build the quiet fortresses
"Where Piety, as they believe, obtains
From Heaven a general blessing ; timely rains,
Or needful sunshine ; prosperous enterprise,
And peace and equity.''

MoJ.archs vied with the people in what they deemei! a work ac-
ceptable to heaver.. Westminster Abbey was built by Edward the
Confessor, by setting aside the tenth of his revenue for this holy
purpose. " The devout and pious king- has dedicated that place to
God, both for its neighbourhood to the famous and wealthy city,
and for its pleasant situation among- fruitful grounds and green
fields, and for the nearness of the principal river of England, which
from all parts of the world conveys whatever is necessary to the
adjoining city." Camden quotes this from a contemporary histo-
rian, and adds, " Be pleased also to take the form and figure of this
building out of an old manuscript :— The chief aisle of the church is
roofed with lofty arches of square work, the joints answering one
another ; but on both sides it is enclosed with a double arch of
stones firmly cemented and knit together. Moreover, the cross of
the church, made to encompass the middle choir of the singers, and
by its double supporter on each side to bear up the lofty top of the
middle tower, first rises singly with a low and strong arch, then
mounts higher with several winding stairs artificially contrived, and
last of all with a single wall reaches to the wooden roof, which is
well covered with lead."

The illuminated manuscripts of the Anglo-Saxon period (and
there are many not inferior in value and interest to the Pon-
tifical which we have recently pointed out) furnish the most authen-
tic materials for a knowledge of the antiquities of our early Church.
It is a subject of which we cannot here attempt to give any con-
nected view. Our notices must be essentially fragmentary. As
works of art we shall have more fully to describe some of the Illumi-
nations which are found in our public and private libraries. In
connection witii our church history, it is scarcely necessary for us
to do more than point attention to the spirited representation of
St. Augustine (Fig. 217) ; to the same founder of Christianity
amongst the Anglo-Saxons (Fig. 222) ; to the portrait of St.
Dunstan (Fig. 218) ; and the kneeling figure of the same energetic
enthusiast (Fig. 22-4). The group representing St. Cuthbert and
King Egfrid (Fig. 219) belongs to the Norman period of art.

The picture history of tho manners and customs of a remote pe-
riod is perhaps more interesting and instructive, is certainly more
to be relied on, than any written description. It is difficult for a
writer not to present the forms and hues of passing things as they
are seen through the glass of his own imagination. But the drafts-
man, especially in a rude stage of art, is in a great degree a faithful
copyist of what he sees before him. The paintings and sculptures
of Egypt furnish the best commentary upon many portions of the
Scripture record. The coloured walls of the ruined houses of
Pompeii exhibit the domestic life of the Roman people with much
greater distinctness than the ' incidental notices of their poets and
historians. Tins is especially the case as regards the illuminations
which embellish many Anglo-Saxon manuscripts. Some of these
»rere not intended by the draftsmen of those days to convey any
notion of how the various ranks around them were performing the
ordinary occupations of life : they were chiefly for the purpose
of representing, historically as it were, events and personages with
which the people were familiarised by their spiritual instructors.
But, knowing nothing of those refinements of art which demand
accuracy of costume, and caring nothing for what we call anachro-
nisms, the limners of the Anglo-Saxon chronicles and paraphrases
painted the Magi in the habits of their own kings, riding on horses
with the equipment of the time (Fig. 283); they put their
own harp into the hands of the Royal Psalmist (Fig. 284) ; and
they exhibited their own methods of interment when they delineated
the raising of Lazarus (Fig. 289). There are some, but few,
Anglo-Saxon pictures of a different character. They are intended
to represent the industrious occupations, the sports, and the enter-
tainments of their own nation. A series of such pictures is found in
a Saxon Calendar, supposed by Mr. Strutt to be written at the com-
mencement of the eleventh century, and which is preserved in the
Cotton Library at the British Museum (Tiberius, B. 5). The
Calendar is written partly in Latin, and partly in Saxon. The
pictures represent the characteristic employments of each Month of
the year. The series of engravings of the months, which occupy a

[ Book I.

part of thh and of the previous sheet of our woik, ire principally
founded, with corrections of the drawing, upon the illustrations of
the old Calendar. We probably cannot adopt a more convenient
mode of briefly describing the occupations of our Anglo-Saxon
ancestors, than by following the order which these pictorial a'. a
quities suggest to us.

January.

The central portion of the engraving (Fig. 227) represents the
ploughman at his labour. Four oxen are employed in the team,
and they are guided by a man in front, who bears a long staff'. The
sower follows immediately behind the ploughman. Fig. 238,
which is a literal copy from another manuscript, presents, at once,
the operations of ploughing, sowing, mowing, measuring corn into
sacks, and the harvest supper. Fig. 256 is a rude representation,
from the Bayeux tapestry, of the wheel-plough. Fig. 257, from
the same authority, shows us the sower following the harrow — a
more accurate representation than that of the sower following the
plough. We thus see that the opening of the year was the time
in which the ground was broken up, and the seed committed to the
bounty of heaven. We cannot with any propriety assume that the
seed was literally sown in the coldest month, although it is possible
that the winter began earlier than it now does. December was
emphatically called Winter-monat, u inter-month. The Anglo-
Saxon name of January was equally expressive of its fierce and
gloomy attributes ; its long nights, when men and cattle were
sheltering from the snow-storm and the frost, but the hungry wolf
was prowling around the homestead. Verstegan says, " The month
which we now call January, they called Wolf-monat, to wit, wolf*
month, because people are wont always in that month to be in more
danger to be devoured of wolves than in any season else of the
year ; for that, through the extremity of cold and snow, these
ravenous beasts could not find of other btasts sufficient to feed
upon." We must consider, therefore, that the Saxon emblems for
January are rather indicative of the opening of the year than of
the first month of the year. There are preserved in the Cotton
Library some very curious dialogues composed by Alfrio of
Canterbury, who lived in the latter part of the tenth century,
which were for the instruction of the Anglo-Saxon youth in the
Latin language, upon the principle of interlinear translation ; and
in these the ploughman says, " I labour much. I go out at day-
break, urging the oxen to the field, and I yoke them to the plough.
It is not yet so stark winter that I dare keep close at home, for
fear of my lord." (Turner's ' Anglo-Saxons/) We thus see that
the ploughing is done after the harvest, before the winter sets in.
The ploughman continues, " But the oxen being yoked, and the
shear and coulter fastened on, I ought to plough every day one
entire field or more. I have a boy to threaten the oxen with a
goad [the long staff represented in the engraving], who is now-
hoarse through cold and bawling. I ought also to fill the bins of the
oxen with hay, and water them, and carry out their soil." The
daily task of the ploughman indicates an advanced state of hus-
bandry. The land was divided into fields; we know from Saxon
grants that they had hedges and ditches. He was as careful, too,
to carry upon the land the ordure of the oxen, as if he had studied
a modern ' Muck-Manual.' He knew the value of such labour,
and set about it probably in a more scientific manner than many of
those who till the same land nine hundred years after him. Mr.
Sharon Turner has given a brief and sensible account of the Anglo-
Saxon husbandr3r, from which the following is an extract : —

" When the Anglo-Saxons invaded England, they came into a
country which had been under the Roman power for about four
hundred years, and where agriculture, after its more complete
subjection by Agricola, had been so much encouraged, that it had
become one of the western granaries of the empire. The Britons,
therefore, of the fifth century may be considered to have pursued
the best system of husbandry then in use, and their lands to have
been extensively cultivated with all those exterior circumstances
which mark established proprietorship and improvement : as small
farms ; inclosed fields ; regular divisions into meadow, arable,
pasture, and wood; fixed boundaries; planted hedges; artificial
dykes and ditches; selected spots for vineyards, gardens, and
orchards ; connecting roads and paths ; scattered villages, and
larger towns ; with appropriated names for every spot and object
that marked the limits of each property, or the course of each way.
All these appear in the earliest Saxon charters, and before the
combating invaders had time or ability to make them, if they had
not found them in the island. Into such a country the Anglo-
Saxon adventurers came, and by these facilities to rural civilization
soon became an agricultural people. The natives, whom they

Chap. 111.]

OLD ENGLAND.

67

despised, conquered, and enslaved, became their educators and
servants in the new arts, which they bad to learn, of grazing and
tillage ; and the previous cultivation practised by the Romanised
Britons will best account for the numerous divisions, and accurate
and precise descriptions of land which occur in almost all the Saxon
charters. No modern conveyance could more accurately distinguish
or describe the boundaries of the premises which it conveyed."
(' History of the Anglo-Saxons,' Vol. III., Appendix, No. 2.)

The side emblems of January (Fig. 227) are from manuscripts
which incidentally give appropriate pictures of the seasons. The
man bearing fuel and the two-headed Janus belong the one to
literal and the other to learned art. It is difficult; to understand
how we retained the names of the week-days from Saxon paganism,
and adopted the classical names of the months.

February.

" They called February Sprout-kele, by kele meaning the kele-
wort, which we now call the cole-wort, the great pot-wort in time
long past that our ancestors used ; and the broth made therewith
was thereof also called kele. For before we borrowed from the
French the name of potage, and the name of herb, the one in our
own language was called kele, and the other wort; and as the
kele-wort, or potage herb, was the chief winter wort for the sus-
tenance of the husbandman, so was it the first herb that in this
month began to yield out wholesome young sprouts, and consequently
gave thereunto the name of Sprout-kele." So writes old Verstegan ;
and, perhaps, if we had weighed earlier what he thus affirms, we
might have better understood Shakspere when he sings of the wintry
time,

"While greasy Joan doth kele the pot.''

The Saxon pictures of February show us the chilly man warming
his hands at the blazing fire ; and the labourers more healthily
employed in the woods and orchards, pruning their fruit-trees and
lopping their timber (Fig. 228). Spenser has mingled these em-
blems in his description of January, in the 'Faery Queen;' but lie
carries on the pruning process into February : —

"Then came old January, wrapped well
In many weeds to keep the cold away ;
Yet did he quake and quiver like to quell,
A nd blow his nails to warm them if he may ;
For they were numb'd with holding all the clay
An hateliet keen, with which he felled wood
And from the trees did lop the needless spiny.'"

March.

The picture in the Saxon Calendar (Fig 236) now gives us dis-
tinctly the seed-time. But the tools of the labourers are the spade
and the pickaxe. "We are looking upon the garden operations of our
industrious forefathers. They called this month " Lenet-monat,"
length-month (from the lengthening of the days) ; " and this month
being by our ancestors so called when they received Christianity,
and consequently therewith the ancient Christian custom of fasting,
they called this chief season of fasting the fast of Lenet, because of
the Lenet-monat, wherein the most parts of the time of this fasting
always fell."

The great season of abstinence from flesh, and the regular recur-
rence through the year of days of fasting, rendered a provision
for the supply of fish to the population a matter of deep concern to
their ecclesiastical instructors. In the times when the Pasran Saxons
were newly converted to Christianity, the missionaries were the
great civilizers, and taught the people how to avail themselves of
the abundant supply of food which the sea offered to the skilful and
the enterprising. Bede tells us that Wilfred so taught the people
of Sussex. " The bishop, when he came into the province, and found
so great misery of famine, taught them to get their food by fishing.
Their sea and rivers abounded in fish, and yet the people had no
skill to take them, except only eels. The bishop's men having
gathered eel-nets everywhere, cast them into the sea, and by the
help of God took three hundred fishes of several sorts, the which
being divided into three parts, they gave a hundred to the poor, a
hundred to those of whom they had the nets, and kept a hundred
for their own use." The Anglo-Saxons had oxen and sheep ; but
their chief reliance for flesh meat, especially through the winter
season, was upon the swine, which, although private property, fed by
thousands in the vast woods with which the country abounded. Our
word Bacon is "of the beechen-tree, anciently called bucon, and
whereas swine's flesh is now called by the name of bacon, it grew
only at the first unto such as were fatted with bucon or beech mast."
As abundant as the swine were the eels that flourished in their
ponds and ditches. The consumption of this species of fish appears

from many incidental circumstances to have been very great. Rents
were paid in eels, boundaries of lands were defined by eel-dykes,
and the monasteries required a regular supply of eels from their
tenants and dependents. We find, however, tiiat the people had a
variety of fish, if they could afford to purchase of the industrious
labourers in the deep. In the ' Dialogues of Alfric,' which we have
already quoted from Mr. Turner, there is the following colloquy
with a fisherman: " What gettest thou by thine art? — Big loaves,
clothing, and money. How do you take them?— I ascend my ship,
and cast my net into the river ; I also throw in a hook, a bait,
and a rod. Suppose the fishes are unclean ? — I throw the unclean
out, and take the clean for food. Where do you sell your fish? —
In the city. "Who buys them? — The citizens; I cannot take so
many as I can sell. "What fishes do you take? — Eels, haddocks,
minnies, and eel-pouts, skate and lampreys, and whatever swims in
the river. Why do you not fish in the sea? — Sometimes I do ; but
rarely, because a great ship is necessary there. What do you take
in the sea? — Herrings and salmons, porpoises, sturgeons, oysters
and crabs, muscles, winckles, cockles, flounders, plaice, lobsters,
and such like. Can you take a Whale ? — No, it is dangerous to take
a whale ; it is safer for me to go to the river with my ship than to
go with many ships to hunt whales. Why? — Because it is more
pleasant for me to take fish which I can kill with one blow ; yet
many take whales without danger, and then they get a great price;
but I dare not from the fearfulness of my mind." We thus see
that three centuries after Wilfred had taught the people of Sussex
to obtain something more from the wafers than the rank eels in
their mud-ponds, the produce of the country's fishery had become
an article of regular exchange. The citizens bought of the fisher-
man as much fish as he could sell ; the fisherman obtained big loaves
and clothing from the citizens. The enterprise which belongs to
the national character did not rest satisfied with the herrings and
salmons of the sea. Though the little fisherman crept along his
shore, there were others who went with many ships to hunt whales.
We cannot have a more decisive indication of the general improve-
ment which had followed in the wake of Christianity, even during a
period of constant warfare with predatory invaders.

April.

The illumination of the Saxon Calendar for this month represents
three persons elevated on a sort of throne, each with drinking-cups
in their hands, and surrounded with attendants upon their festivities
(Figs. 237, 267). Strutt, in his description of this drawing, says,
" Now, taking leave of the laborious husbandman, we see the noble-
man regaling with his friends, and passing this pleasant month in
banquetings and music." But he assigns no cause for the appro-
priateness of this jollity to the particular season. Is not this pic-
ture an emblem of the gladness with which the great festival of
Easter was held after the self-denials of Lent ? April was called
by the Anglo-Saxons " by the name of Oster-monat ; some think,
of a goddess called Goster, Avhereof I see no great reason, for if it
took appellation of such a goddess (a supposed causer of the easterly
winds), it seemeth to have been somewhat by some miswritten, and
should rightly be Oster and not Goster. The winds indeed, by
ancient observation, were found in this month most commonly to
blow from the east, and east in the Teutonic is Ost, and Ost-end,
which rightly in English is East-end, hath that name for the
eastern situation thereof, as to the ships it appeareth which through
the narrow seas do come from the west. So as our name of the
feast of Easter may be as much to say as the feast of Oster, being
yet at this present in Saxony called Ostern, which cometh of
Oster-monat, their and our old name of April." Those who are
banqueting on the dais in the illumination, have each cups in their
hands; the man sitting at their feet is filling a horn from a
tankard ; the young man on the right is drinking from a horn.
There is a clear distinction between the rank of the persons assem-
bled at this festivity ; and the difference of the vessels which they
are using for their potations might imply that the horns were filled
with the old Saxon ale or mead, and the cups with the more luxu-
rious wine. In Alfric's Colloquy a lad is asked what he drank ;
and he answers, " Ale if I have it, or water if I have not." He
is further asked why he does not drink wine, and lie replies, " I am
not so rich that I can buy me wine, and wine is not the drink of
children or the weak-minded, but of the elders and the wise." But
if we may reason from analogy, the drinking-horn had a greater im-
portance attached to it than the drinking-cup. Inheritances of land
were transferred by the transfer of a horn ; estates were held in
fee by a horn. The horn of Ulphus (Fig. 292) is a remarkable
cariosity still preserved in the Sacristy of the Cathedral at York.

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265.— Dinner. The Company pledging each other. (Cotton MS.)

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261,— Saxon Emblems of the month of October.

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273.— Saxon Emblems of the mouth of November.

275.— Feast at a Round Table. (Bayeux Tapestry.)

276.— Wheel- Bed. (Cotton M3.)

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69

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OLD ENGLAND.

[Book L

Ulphus was a Danish nobleman of the time of Canute, who, as
Camden informs us, " By reason of the difference which was like to
rise between his sons about the sharing of his lands and lordships
after his death, resolved to make them all alike ; and thereupon
coming to York with that horn wherewith he was used to drink,
filled it witli wine, and kneeling devoutly before the altar of God
and St. Peter, prince of the apostles, drank the wine, and by that
ceremony enfeoffed this church with ail his lands and revenues."
During the Civil Wars the horn of Ulphus came into the possession
of Lord Fairfax, after being sold to a goldsmith ; and it was subse-
quently restored to the church by the Fairfax family in 1675. The
Pusey family in Berkshire hold their possessions by a horn given to
their ancestors by King Canute (Fig. 290). So Camden informs us ;
though the inscription upon the horn which records the fact (Fig.
291) is held by Camden's editor, Bishop Gibson, to be of a much
more recent date. Nearly all the Saxon representations of convi-
vial meetings — and these are sufficiently numerous to furnish pretty
clear evidence of the hospitality of that age — exhibit the guests for
the most part drinking from horns (Fig. 249). Whether the wine
or mead were drunk from horn or cup, the early custom of pledging
appears to have been universal (Fig. 2G5). According to the old
chroniclers, it was the first wine-pledge that delivered over Britain
to the power of the Saxons, when the beautiful Bowena sat down in
the banqueting-hall by the side of Vortigern, and betrayed him by
her wine-cup, and her Waes Heal (Be of health). . Robert of Glo-
cester has recorded this first wassail in his rough rhyme, which has
been thus paraphrased :

" ' Health, my Lord King,' the sweet Eowena said ;
' Health,' cried the Chieftain to the Saxon maid ;
Then gaily rose, and, 'mid the concourse wide,
Kissed her hale lips, and placed her by his side.
At the soft scene such gentle thoughts abound,
That healths and kisses 'mongst the guests went round :
From this the social custom took its rise ;
We still retain and still must keep the prize.'

Sclden, who gives the story in his Notes to Drayton, conjectures of
the wassail of the English that it was "an unusual ceremony among
the Saxons before Hengist, as a note of health-wishing (and so per-
haps you might make it wish-heil), which was expressed among
other nations in that form of drinking to the health of their mis-
tresses and friends."

May.

Spenser has clothed his May witli all the attributes of poetry : — ■
" Then came fair May, the fairest maid on ground,
Deck'd all with dainties of her season's pride,
And throwing flowers out of her lap around :
Upon two Brethren's shoulders sho did ride,
The Twins of Leda ; which on either side
Supported her like to their sovereign Queen :
Lord! how all creatures laugh 'd when her they spied,
And leap'd and dane'd as they had ravish' d been,
And Cupid self about her fluttered all in green."

The Saxon name of the month has a pastoral charm about it
which is as delightful as the gorgeous imagery of the great poet.
" The pleasant month of May they termed by the name of Tri-
milki, because in that month they began to milk their kine three
times in the clay." The illumination of the Calendar carries us into
the pleasant fields, where the sheep are nibbling the thymy grass,
nd the old shepherd, seated upon a bank, is looking upon the lamb
which the labourer bears in his arms. The shepherd describes his
duty in the Colloquy of Alfric : " In the first part of the morning
I drive my sheep to their pasture, and stand over them in heat and
in cold with dogs, lest the wolves destroy them. I lead them back to
their folds and milk them twice a day, and I move their folds, and
make cheese and butter ; and I am faithful to my lord." The gar-
ments of the Anglo-Saxons, both male and female, were linen as
well as woollen ; but we can easily judge that in a country whose
population was surrounded by vast forests and dreary marshes, wool,
the warmer material of clothing, would be of the first importance.
Tiie fleece which the shepherd brought home in the pleasant summer
season was duly spun throughout the winter, by the females of
every family, whatever might be their rank. King Edward the
Elder commanded that his daughters should be instructed in the use
of tiie distaff'. Alfred, in his will, called the female part of his family
the spindle side. At this day, true to their ancient usefulness (the form
of which, we hope not the substance, has passed away), unmarried
ladies are called spinsters. But the Anglo-Saxon ladies attained a
high degree of skill in the ornamental work belonging to clothing.

Tiie Norman historians record their excellence with the needle,
and their skill in embroidery. Minute descriptions of dress are not
amongst the most amusing of reading, although they are highly
valuable to the systematic chronicler of manners. It may be suffi-
cient for us to point attention, first to the cloaks, the plain and em-
broidered tunics, and the shoes of the males (Fig. 285, and inciden-
tally in other Figures). These were the loose and flowing garments
of the superior classes, a costume certainly of great, beauty. The
close tunic of the labourers (Fig. 255) is distinguished by the same
fitness for the rank and occupation of the wearers. The practice
of bandaging or cross-gartering the hose is indicated in many Anglo-
Saxon drawings (Figs. 284, 288). Secondly, the ladies wore a long
and ample garment with loose sleeves (tiie gunna, whence our
gown), over a closer-fitting one, which had tight sleeves reaching
to the wrist ; over these a mantle was worn by the superior classes,
and a sort of hood or veil upon the head (Figs. 286, 287). Those
who desire further information upon the subject of the Anglo-Saxon
costume may consult Mr. Blanche's valuable little work upon
'British Costume,' or the ' Pictorial History of England,' Book II.,
Chap. VI.

June.

The emblem which we have given for this month (Fig. 24G) is
assigned to July in the Saxon Calendar; but Mr. Strutt is of
opinion that the illuminator transposed the emblems of June and
Julv, as there would be no leisure for felling trees during the
harvest time, which is represented in the original as taking place
in June and in August. The field operations of Augu-t are pro-
perly a continuation of those of July, according to Mr. Strutt.
But it is not improbable that the hay harvest was meant to be re-
presented by one illumination, and the grain harvest by the other.
June was called by a name which describes the pasturing of cattle
in the fields not destined for winter fodder. These were the
meadows, which were too wet and rank for the purposes of hay.
The blythe business of hay-making was upon the uplands. Yerste-
»-an says : " Unto June they gave the name of Weyd-monat, be-
cause their beasts did then weyd in the meadows, that is to say, go
to feed there, and thereof a meadow is also in the Teutonic called
a weyd, and of weyd we yet retain our word wade, which we under-
stand of going through watery places, such as meadows are wont to
be." The felling of trees in the height of summer, when the sap was
up, was certainly not for purposes of timber. It was necessary to pro-
vide a large supply of fuel for winter use. In grants of land sufficient
wood for burning was constantly permitted to be cut ; and every
estate had its appropriate quantity of wood set out for fuel and for
building.

July.

This was the Heu-monat or Iley-monat, tiie Hay-month. The
July of Spenser bears the scythe and the sickle : —

" Behind his back a scythe, and by his side
Under his belt he bore a sickle circling wide.''

These instruments were probably indifferently used in the har-
vests of the Anglo-Saxons, as they still are in many of our English
counties (Figs. 254, 258).

August.

This was especially the harvest-month. "August they call
Arn-monat, more rightly Barn-monat, intending thereby the then
fillino- of their barns with corn." The arable portion of an estate
was probably comparatively small. The population of the towns
was supplied with corn from the lands in their immediate vicinity.
There was no general system of exchange prevailing throughout
the country. In the small farms enough corn was grown for do-
mestic use ; and when it failed, as it often did, before the succeed-
in"- harvest, the cole-wort and the green pulse were the welcome
substitutes. Wheaten bread was not in universal use. The young
monks of the Abbey of St. Edmund ate the cheaper barley bread.
The baker, in Alfric's Colloquy, answers to the question of " What
use is your art? we can live long without you:"— "You may live
through some space without my art, but not long nor so well ; for
without my craft every table would seem empty, and without bread
all meat would become nauseous. I strengthen the heart of man,
and little ones could not do without me." In the representation
of a dinner-party (Fig. 247), some food is placed on the table ; but
the kneeling servants offer the roasted meat on spits, from which
the "-nests cut slices into their trenchers. We smile at these
primitive manners, but they were a refinement upon those of the
heroes of Homer, who were their own cooks,

Chap. Ill]

OLD ENGLAND.

. i

" Patroclus did his dear friend's will ; and he that did desire
To cheer the lords (come faint from fight) set on a blazing fire
A great hrass pot, and into it a chine of mutton put,
And fat goat's flesh ; Automedon held, while he pieces cut
To roast and boil, right cunningly : then of a well-fed swine,
A huge fat shoulder he cuts out, and spits it wondrous line :
His good friend made a goodly fire ; of which the force once past,
Ho laid the spit low, near the coals, to make it brown at last :
Then sprinkled it with sacred salt, and took it from the racks :
This roasted and on dresser set, his friend Patroclus takes
Bread in fair baski fca ; which set on, Achilles brought the meat,
And to divinest Ithacus took his opposed seat
Upon the hench : then did he will his friend to sacrifice ;
Who cast sweet incense in the fire, to all the Deities.
Thus fell they t" tick ready food."

Ciiaphax's Translation of the Iliad, Book ix.

An illumination amongst the Harleian Manuscripts exhibits to
us an interesting part of the economy of a lord's house in the Saxon
times. In I he foreground are collected some poor people, aged
men, women, and children, who are storing in their vessels, or
humbly wailing to receive, the provisions which the lord and the
lady are distributing at their hall door. It was from this highest
of the occupations of the rich and powerful, the succour of the
needy, that the early antiquaries derived our titles of Lord and
Lady. The modern etymologists deny the correctness of tins
derivation, and maintain that the names are simply derived from a
Saxon verb which means to raise up, to exalt. Home Tooke, in
liis 'Diversions of Purley,' maintains this opinion ; and our recent
dictionary-makers adopt it. Nevertheless, we shall transcribe old
Veretegan's ingenious notion of the origin of the terms, which has
something higher and better in it than mere word-splitting : " I
find that our ancestors used for Lord the name of Laford, which (as
it should seem) for "3ome aspiration in the pronouncing, they wrote
Hlaford, and Hlafurd. Afterwards it grew to be written Loverd,
and by receiving like abridgement as other of our ancient appellations
have done, it is in one syllable become Lord. To deliver therefore
the true etymology, the reader shall understand, that albeit we
have our name of bread from Breod, as our ancestors were wont to
call if, yet used they also, and that most commonly, to call bread
by the name of Hlaf, from whence we now only retain the name of
the form or fashion wherein bread is usually made, calling it a loaf,
whereas loaf, coming of Hlaf or Laf, is rigidly also bread itself,
and was not of our ancestors taken for the form only, as now we
use it. Now was it usual in long foregoing ages, that such as
were endued with great wealth and means above others, were
chiefly renowned (especially in these northern regions) for their
house-keeping and good hospitality ; that is, for being able, and
using to feed and sustain many men, and therefore were they par-
ticularly honoured with the name and title of Hlaford, which is as
much to say, as an aflbrder of Laf, that is, a bread-giver, intending
(as it seemeth) by bread, the sustenance of man, that being the
substance of our food the most agreeable to nature, and that which
in our daily prayers we especially desire at the hands of God.
The name and title of lady was anciently written Hleafdian, or
Leafdian, from whence it came to be Lafdy, and lastly Lady. I
have showed here last before how Hlaf or Laf was sometime our
name of bread, as also the reason why our noble and principal men
came to be honoured in the name of Laford, which now is Lord,
and even the like in correspondence of reason must appear in this
name of Leafdian, the feminine of Laford ; the first syllable whereof
being anciently written Hleaf, and not Hlaf, must not therefore
alienate it from the like nature and sense, for that only seemeth
to have been the feminine sound, and we see that of Leafdian we
have not retained Leady, but Lady. Well then both Hlaf and
Hleaf, we must here understand to signify one thing which is
oread ; Dian is as much to say as serve ; and so is Leafdian a bread-
server. Whereby it appeareth that as the Laford did allow food
and sustenance, so the Leafdian did see it served and disposed to
the guests. And our ancient and yet continued custom that our
ladies and gentlewomen do use to carve and serve their guests at the
table, which in other countries is altogether strange and unusual,
doth for proof hereof well accord and correspond with this our
ancient and honourable feminine appellation."

September.
The illumination of the Saxon Calendar for this month exhibits
the chace of the wild boar in the woods, where he fattened on
acorns and beech-masts. The Saxon name of the month was
Gerst-monat, or Barley-month; the month either of the barley
harvest or the barley beer making. But the pictorial representa-
tion of September shows us the bold hunting with dog and boar-
spear. The old British breed of strong hounds, excellent for

hunting and war, which Strabo describes as exported to other
countries, was probably not extinct. Even the most populous
places were surrounded with thick woods, where the boar, the wolf,
and the bear lurked, or came forth to attack the unhappy way-
faier. London was bounded by a great foiest. Fitz-Stephen
says, wiiting in the reign of Henry the Second—'- On the north side
are fields for pasture and open meadows very pleasant, among
which the river waters do flow, and the wheels of the mills are
turned about with a delightful noise-. Very near lieth a large
forest, in which are woody groves ci wild beasts in the coverts,
whereof do lurk bucks and does, wild boars and bulls." All ranks
of the Anglo-Saxons delighted in the chace. The young nobles were
trained to hunting after their school-days of Latin, as we are told
in Asser's ' Life of Alfred.' Harold llarefoot, the kin"-, was so
called from his swiftness in the foot-chace. The beating the woods
for the boar, as represented in Fig. 231, was a service of danger
and therefore fitted for the training of a warlike people.

October.

This was the Wyn-monat, the Wine month of the Anglo-Saxons.
Spenser's personification of the month is an image of "Old Eng-
land :"—

"Then came October full of merry glee ;
For yet his noule was totty of the must,
While he was treading in the wine-fat's sea,
And of the joyous oil, whose gentle gust
Made him so frolic and so full of lust."

The illumination of the Saxon Calendar (Fig. 264) shows us the
falconer with his hawk on fist, ready to let her down the wind at
the heron or the wild duck. Other illuminations of this early
period exhibit the grape-picker and the grape-presser. The wine-
press of the time will appear in a subsequent page. Much has been
written upon the ancient culture of the vine in England. Bede
says, " The island excels for grain and trees, and is fit for feedinsr
of beasts of burden and cattle. It also produces vines in some
places." The later chroniclers, who knew the fact, quote Bede
without disputing his assertion. Winchester, according to some of
the earlier antiquaries, derived its name from Vintonia, the city of
the vine; but this is very questionable. The Bishop of Rochestei
had a vineyard at Hailing; and one of the bishops, as Lambarde
tails us, sent to Edward II. "a present of his drinks, and withal both
wine and grapes of his own growth in his vineyard at Hailing,
w Inch is now a good plain meadow." The same authority says,
"History hath mention that there was about that time [the Norman
invasion | great store of vines at Santlac [Battle]." He has a
parallel instance of the early culture of the vine: — "The like
whereof I have read to have been at Windsor, insomuch as tithe of
them hath been there yielded in great plenty ; which giveth me to
think that wine hath been made long since within the realm,
although in our memory it be accounted a great dainty to hear of."
Lambarde then particularly describes the tithe of the Windsor vine-
yard, as " of wine pressed out of grapes that grew in the little park,
there, to the Abbot of Waltham ; and that accompts have been
made of the charges of planting the vines that grew in the said
park, as also of making the wines, whereof some parts were spent in
the household, and some sold for the king's profit." This is an
approach to a wine-manufacture upon a large scale. There can be
little doubt that many of the great monasteries in the South of'
England had their vineyards, and made the wine for the use of their
fraternities. They might not carry the manufacture so far as to
sell any wine for their profit ; but the vineyard and the wine-press
saved them the cost of foreign wines, for their labour was of little
account. The religious houses founded in the Anglo-Saxon period
had probably, in many cases, their vineyards as well as their
orchards. There is an express record of a vineyard at Saint Ed-
mundsbury ; Martin, Abbot of Peterborough, is recorded in the
Saxon Chronicle to have planted a vineyard ; William Thorn, th*>
monastic chronicler, writes that in his abbey of Nordhome the*
vineyard was " ad commodum et magnum honorem " — a profitable
and celebrated vineyard. Vineyards are repeatedly mentioned in
Domesday-Book. William of Malmesbury thus notices vineyards
in his description of the abundance of the County of Gloucester: —
" No county in England has so many or so good vineyards as thif,
either for fertility or sweetness of the grape. The vine has in it no
unpleasant tartness or eagerness [sourness, from aigre], and is little
inferior to the French in sweetness." Camden, in quoting this
passage, adds, " We are not to wonder that so many places in this
country from their vines are called vineyards, because they afforded
plenty of wine ; and that they yield none now is rather to be im-
puted to the sloth of the inhabitants than the indisposition of tne-

230— The Pusey Horn.

■""'»■»■»" IIIIIHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIM IMHHIIIl

233. -Royal Costume, and the Harness and Equipment of Horses. (Cotton MS.)

291.— Facsimile cf Uw Inscription on the Pusey Horn.

284.— The Harp, accompanied by other Instruments.
(Cotton MS.)

292.— Horn of Ulplius.

«H

235.— Saxon Clo.i'.ts, Tlain an! Embroidered Tunics, and Shoes. (Cotton MS.)

286.— Costume of a Female, exhibiting
the under and upper sleeved Tunic,
the Mantle aad Hood. (Harleian
MS.)

2S7.— Anglo-Saxon Females. The standing figure is
Ktheldrytha, a Princess of East Anglia, from the
Bcnedictional of St. Kthelwold.

288.— Civil Costume of the Anglo-Saxons.

72

289.— The Coffin and Grave-clothes. From a Picture of the RaisiDg of Lazarus, in Cotton MS. Kero, C. i.

298.— Saxon Ships, from an Engraving in Strutt's Chronicle of England, made up from
various Saxon Illuminations.

296.— Entrance of the Mine of Odin, an ancient Lead-Mine in Derbyshire.

S

a

ID
I

293.— Wine-Presa. (Cotton MS.)
E.

X

295.-Smithy ; a Harper in the other compartment. (From Cotton MS.)

No. 10.

Pillars of Hercules

w.

299.— Anglo-Saxon Map of the Tenth Century

74

OLD ENGLAND.

[Book I.

climate." This question of the ancient growth of the vine in '
England was the subject of a regular antiquarian passage-at-arms
in 1771, when the Honourable Daines Barrington entered the lists
to overthrow all the chroniclers and antiquaries, from William of
Malmesbury to Samuel Pegge, and to prove that the English grapes
were currants — that the vineyards of Domesday-book and other
ancient records were nothing but gardens — that the climate of
England would never have permitted the ripening of grapes for
wine. The throng of partisans to this battle-field was prodigious.
The Antiquarian Society inscribed the paper pellets shot on this
occasion as " The Vineyard Controversy."

We have no hesitation in believing that those who put faith in
the truth of the ancient records were right ; — that vineyards were
plentiful in England, and that wine was made from the English
grapes. It was not a change in the climate, nor the sloth of the
people, that rendered the vineyards less and less profitable in every
age, and finally produced their complete extinction. The wine of
France was largely imported into England soon after the Norman
Conquest. It is distinctly recorded that a passion for French wines
was a characteristic of the court and the nobility in the reign of
Henry III. The monks continued to cultivate their vines, — as in
the sunny vale of Beaulieu, where the abbey, which King John
founded, had its famous vineyard ; but the great supply of wine,
even to the diligent monks, was from the shores of France, where
the vine could be cultivated upon the commercial principle. Had
the English under the Plantagenets persevered in the home cul-
tivation of the vine for the purpose of wine-making, whilst the
claret of a better vine-country, that could be brought in a few hours
across the narrow sea, was excluded from our ports, the capital of
England would have been fruitlessly wasted in struggles against
natural disadvantages, and the people of England would have been
for the most part deprived of the use and enjoyment of a superior
drink to their native beer. The English vineyards were gradually
changed into plain meadows, as Lambarde has said, or into fertile
corn-fields. Commercially the vine could not be cultivated in
England, whilst the produce of the sunny hills of France was
more accessible to London and Winchester than the corn which
grew in the nearest inland county. The brethren of a monastery,
whose labour was a recreation, might continue to prune their vines
and press their grapes, as their Saxon ancestors had done before
them ; but for the people generally, wine would have been a luxury
unattainable, had not the ports of Sandwich and Southampton
been freely open to the cheap and excellent wine of the French
provinces. This is the course of every great revolution in the
mode of supplying the necessities, or even the luxuries, of a people
amongst whom the principle of exchange has been established.
The home growth for a while supplies the home consumption.
A cheaper and better supply is partially obtained through ex-
change and easy communication — from another parish, another
county, another province, and finally from another country. Then
the home growth lingers and declines ; capital is diverted into other
channels, where it can be more profitably employed. Governments
then begin to strive against the natural commercial laws, by the
establishment of restrictive or prohibitory duties. A struggle goes
on, perhaps prolonged for centuries, between the restrictions and
the principle of exchange. The result is certain. The law of
exchange is a law of progress ; the rule of restriction is a rule of
retrogression. The law of exchange goes on to render the com-
munications of mankind, even of those who are separated by mighty
oceans, as easy as the ancient communications of those who were
only separated by a river or a mountain. The rule of restriction,
generation after generation, and year after year, narrows its circle,
which was first a wide one, and held a confiding people within its
fold ; but, as it approaches to the end, comes to contain only a class,
then a few of the -more prejudiced of a class, and lastly, those who
openly admit that the rule is for their exclusive benefit. The
meadows and the corn-fields of England have profitably succeeded
her unprofitable vineyards; and the meadows and the corn-fields
will flourish because the same law of exchange that drove out the
vineyards will render the home exchange of corn and meat more
profitable, generally, to producer and consumer than the foreign
exchange. England is essentially a corn-growing and a mutton-
growing country ; and we have no fear that her fields will have
failing crops, or her downs not be white with flocks, if the law of
exchange should free itself from every restriction. England was
not a wine-growing country, and therefore her vineyards perished
before the same natural laws that will give the best, because the
most steady, encouragement to her bread-growing and beer-growing
capacity.

November.

This was the Wint-monat, the wind-month, of the Anglo-Saxons.
Its emblems were the blazing hearth and the swine-killing (Fig.
273). The great slaughter-time was come, — the days of fresh
meat were passing away. The beeves, and the sheep, and the hogs,
whose store of green feed was now exhausted, were doomed to the
salting-tubs. The Martinmas beef, — the beef salted at the feast
of St. Martin — is still known in the northern parts of the island ;
and the proverb which we adopted from Spain " His Martinmas
will come, as it does to every hog," speaks of a destiny as inevitable
as the fate of the acorn-fed swine at the salting season.

Mr. Strutt, in his explanation of the illumination of the Saxon
Calendar, says, " This month returns us again to the labourers, who
are here heating and preparing their utensils." He then refers us
to another drawing of a blacksmith. The Saxon illumination is
very rude. In the centre of the composition there is a blazing fire
upon the floor ; a group on the right are warming their hands ;
whilst one man on the left is bearing a bundle of fuel, and another
doing something at the fire with a rough pair of tongs. We
believe that our artist has translated the illumination correctly, in
considering this the fire of the domestic hearth, which the labourers
are supplying with fresh billets. But as the subject is interpreted
by Mr. Strutt, it refers to the craft of the smith, the most
important occupation of early times ; and we may therefore not
improperly say a few words upon this great handicraftsman, who
iias transmitted us so many inheritors of his name even in our own
day. Yerstegan says, " Touching such as have their surnames of
occupations, as Smith, Taylor, Turner, and such others, it is not
to be doubted but their ancestors have first gotten them by using
such trades; and the children of such parents being content to take
them upon them, their after-coming posterity could hardly avoid
them, and so in time cometh it rightly to be said, —

' From whence came Smith, all be he knight or squire,
But from the smith that forgeth at the fire.' "

But the author of an ingenious little book, lately published, on
" English Surnames," Mr. Lower, points out that the term was
originally applied to all smiters in general. The Anglo-Saxon
Smith was the name of any one that struck with a hammer, — a
carpenter, as well as a worker in iron. They had specific names for
the ironsmith, the goldsmith, the coppersmith ; and the numerous
race of the Smiths are the representatives of the great body
of artificers amongst our Saxon ancestors. The ironsmith is
represented labouring at his forge in Fig. 294, and in Fig. 295,
where, in another compartment of the drawing, we have the figure
of a harper. The monks themselves were smiths; and St. Dunstan,
the ablest man of his age, Mas a worker in iron. The ironsmith
could produce any tool by his art, from a ploughshare to a needle.
The smith in Alfric's Colloquy says, " Whence the share to the
ploughman, or the goad, but for my art ? Whence to the fisherman
an angle, or to the shoewright an awl, or to the sempstress a needle,
but for my art ?" No wonder then that the art was honoured and
cultivated. The antiquaries have raised a question whether the
Anglo-Saxon horses were shod ; and they appear to have decided
in the negative, because the great districts for the breed of horses
were fenny districts, where the horses might travel without shoes
(See ' Archasologia,' vol. iii.). The crotchets of the learned are
certainly unfathomable. Mr. Pegge, the writer to whom we
allude, says, " Here in England one has reason to think they began
to shoe soon after the Norman Conquest. William the Conqueror
gave to Simon St. Liz, a noble Norman, the town of Northampton,
and the whole hundred of Falkley, then valued at forty pound per
annum, to provide shoes for his horses." If the shoes were not
wanted, by reason of the nature of the soil in Anglo-Saxon times,
the invading Normans might have equally dispensed with them,
and William might have saved his manor for some better suit and
service. Montfaucon tells us, that when the tomb of Childeric, the
father of Clovis, who was buried with his horse in the fifth century,
was opened in 1653, an iron horse-shoe was found within it. If
the horse of Childeric wore iron horse-shoes, we may reasonably
conclude that the horses of Alfred and Athelstane, of Edgar and
Harold, were equally provided by their native smiths. There is
little doubt that the mines of England were well worked in the
Saxon times. " Iron-ore was obtained in several counties, and there
were furnaces for smelting. The mines of Gloucestershire in
particular are alluded to by Giraldus Cambrensis as producing an
abundance of this valuable metal; and the~e is every reason for
supposing that these mines were wrought by tiie Saxons, as indeed
they had most probably been by their predecessors the Romano.

Chap. III.]

OLD ENGLAND.

75

The lead-mines of Derbyshire, which had been worked by the
Romans, furnished the Anglo-Saxons with a supply of ore (Fig.
296) ; but the most important use of this metal in the Anglo-Saxon
period, that of covering the roofs of churches, was not introduced
before the close of the seventh century." ('Pictorial History of
England,' Book II. Chap. VI.) It is not impossible that something
more than mere manual labour was applied to the operations of
lifting ore from the mines, and freeing them from water, the great
obstacle to successful working. \n the Cotton Manuscripts we
have a representation of the Anglo-Saxon mode of raising water
from a well with a loaded lever (Fig. 297). At the present day
we see precisely the same operation carried on by the market-
o-ardeners of Isleworth and Twickenham. A people that have
advanced so far in the mechanical arts as thus to apply the lever as
a labour-saving principle, are in the direct course for reaching many
of the higher combinations of machinery. The Anglo-Saxons were
exporters of manufactured goods in gold and silver ; and after nine
hundred years we are not much farther advanced in our commercial
economy than the merchant in Alfric's Colloquy, who says, "I
send my ship with my merchandise (Fig. 298), and sail over the
sea-like places, and sell my things, and buy dear things, which are

not produced in this land Will you sell your things here

as you bought them there? — I will not, because what would my
labour benefit me? I will sell them here dearer than I bought
them there, that I may get some profit to feed me, my wife, and
children." The geographical knowledge of the Anglo-Saxons was,
no doubt, imperfect enough ; but it was sufficient to enable them to
carry on commercial operations with distant lands. The Anglo-
Saxon map (Fig. 299) is taken from a manuscript of the tenth
century, in the Cottonian Library. It was published in the
' Penny Magazine,' No. 340, from which we extract the following
remarks upon it : — " The defects of the map are most apparent in
the disproportionate size and inaccurate position of places. The
island to the left of Ireland is probably meant for one of the Western
Islands of Scotland ; but it is by far too large, and is very
incorrectly placed. The same remark will apply to the islands in
the Mediterranean. The form given to the Black Sea appears just
such as would be consequent upon loose information derived from
mariners. However, in the absence of scientific surveys of any
coast, and considering the little intercourse which took place
between distant countries, the Anglo-Saxon map represents as
accurate an outline as perhaps ought to be expected."

December.

The emblem of the Saxon Calendar is that of the threshing
season (Fig. 274). The flail has a reverend antiquity amongst us;
the round sieve slowly does the work of winnowing ; the farmer
stands by with his notched stick, to mark how many baskets of the
winnowed corn are borne to his granary. Other emblems show us
the woodman bearing his fuel homewards, to make his hearth
cheerful in the Winter-monat, winter-month ; or the jolly yeoman
lifting his drinking-horn during the festivities of the Heligh-monat,
holy-month, for December was called by both these names. Then
was the round table filled with jocund guests (Fig. 275). Then
were the harp and the pipe heard in the merry halls ; and the
dancers were as happy amidst the smoke of their wood-fires, as if
their jewels had shone in the clear biaze of a hundred wax-lights
(Figs. 248, 266).

The Anglo-Saxon illuminations in the preceding pages, which
are fac-similes, or nearly so, of drawings accompanying the original
manuscripts in our public libraries, will not have impressed those
unfamiliar with the subject with any very high notion of the state
of art in this island eight or nine hundred years ago. It must be
remembered that these specimens are selected, not as examples of
the then state of art, but as materials for the history of manners
and of costume. The false perspective, the slovenly delineations of
the extremities, and the general distortion of the human figure, will
at once be apparent. But there was nevertheless a school of art, if
so it may be called, existing in England and Ireland, which has
left some very remarkable proofs of excellence, and indeed of
originality, in a humble walk of pictorial labour. The illuminated
letters of the Anglo-Saxon manuscripts are wholly different from
those of any continental school ; and they display a gracefulness of
ornament, and a power of invention, which may be profitably studied
in these our own times when ornamental design in connection with
manufactures is escaping from the monotonous barbarism which has
so long marked us in such matters as a tasteless and unimaginative
people. " The chief features of this species of illumination are

described by Sir F. Madden to be — extreme intricacy of pattern,
interlacings of knots in a diagonal or square form, sometimes
interwoven with animals, and terminating in heads of serpents cr
birds. Though we cannot distinctly trace the progress of this art,
we may conclude that it continued in a flourishing and improving
state in the interval from the eighth to the tenth and eleventh
centuries, which were so prolific in Anglo-Saxon works of
calligraphy and illumination, that, perhaps, says a competent
authority, speaking of this period, our public libraries and the
collections abroad contain more specimens executed in this country
than any other can produce during the same space of time."
(' Pictorial History of England,' Book II. Chap. V.) We give three
examples, out of the great variety which exists in this branch of art.
The illuminated letter P is of the eighth century (Fig. 301), at
which period the illumination of books formed a delightful occupation
to the more skilful in the monastic establishments, and was even
thought a proper employment by the highest dignitaries of the Church.
There is a splendid example known as the 'Durham Book,' winch
was the work of Eadfrid, Bishop of Lindisfarne, who died in 721.
Dunstan himself, at a subsequent period, varied the course of his
austerities and his ambition by employing his hand in the illumination
of manuscripts. The ornament (Fig. 300) and the letter Q (Fig.
302) are of the tenth century.

But, although the examples are not very numerous, Ave have
proof that the taste thus cultivated in the cloisters of the Anglo-
Saxons was occasionally capable of efforts which would not have
been unworthy of that period and that country to which we assign
the revival of the arts. We are too much accustomed to think that
there was no art in Europe, and very little learning, during what
we are pleased to call the dark ages. But in the centuries so
designated there were, in our own country, divines, historians,
poets, whose acquirements might be an object of honourable rivalry
to many of those who are accustomed to sneer at their scientific
ignorance and their devotional credulity. At the tune when Italian
art was in the most debased condition, there was a monk in England
(and there may have been many more such whose labours have
perished) who, in all the higher qualities of design, might have
rivalled the great painters who are held, three centuries later, to
have been almost the creators of modern art. In the most successful
labours of the Anglo-Saxon cloister there was probably little worldly
fame ; of rivalry there was less. The artist, in the brief intervals
of his studies and his devotions, laboured at some work of several
years, which was to him a glory and a consolation. He was
worthily employed, and happily because his pencil embodied the
images which were ever present to his contemplation. He did not
labour for wealth amidst struggling competitors. Dante says of the
first great Italian artists : —

" Citnabue thought
To lord it over painting's field ; and now
The cry is Giotto's, and his name eclips'd.
Thus hath one Guido from the other snatch'd
The letter'd prize : and he, perhaps, is born,
Who shall drive either from their nest. The noise
Of worldly fame is but a blast of wind,
That blows from diverse points, and shifts its name,
Shifting the point it blows from."

There is an Anglo-Saxon collection of drawings in existence,
undoubtedly produced in the tenth century, whose excellence is
such that the artist might have pretended " to lord it over
painting's field " even amongst the Cimabues and Giottos. His
name is supposed to have been Godemann ; but even that is
doubtful. To him, whoever he was, might now be addressed the
subsequent lines of Dante : —

" Shalt thou more
Live in the mouths of mankind, if thy flesh
Part shrivell'd from thee, than if thou hadst died
Before the coral and the pap were left:
Or ere some thousand years have past?"

But he has vindicated the general claims of his countrymen to
take their rank, in times which men falsely call barbarous, amidst
those who have worthily elevated the grosser conceptions of man-
kind into the ideal, showing that art had a wider and a purer sphere
than the mere imitation of natural objects. The Benedictional of
St. Ethelwold, an illuminated manuscript of the tenth century, in
the library of the Duke of Devonshire, is the work to which we
allude. It is fully described by Mr. Gage, in the twenty-fourth
volume of the ' Archseologia ;' and the Antiquarian Society, greatly
to their honour, caused to be beautifully engraved in their Trans-
actions thirty plates of the miniatures with which this remarkable

L2

300. — Anglo-Saxon Ornament.
(From MS of the Tenth Century )

301 —Anglo-Saxon Illuminated Letter. (From MS. of the Eighth Century.)

303 -From St. jKtbelwold s Benedictional. Illumination V.

304.— From St. 4;thel\vold's Beiudictional. Illumination VII.

312.— Canute and his Queen. (From the Register of Hyde Abbey.)

311.— King Edgar. (From Cotton MS.)

308.— Portrait of King Alfred. (Drawn from Coins and Busts.)

313.— Seal of Alfric, Earl of Mercia.

[310.— Saxon Lantern. (Engraved in Starp.tt'l
Chronicle of England.)

314.— From Cotton MS.

309.— Arfred'e •' Jewel

77

73

OLD ENGLAND.

[Book I.

work is adorned. This manuscript was the ancient Benedictional
of the See of Winchester ; and it is stated at the commencement of
the work, that " A prelate whom the Lord had caused to be head of
the Church of Winchester, the great JEthelwold, commanded a
certain monk subject to him to write the present book ; he ordered
also to be made in it many arches elegantly decorated and filled up
with various ornamental pictures, expressed in clivers beautiful
colours and gold." At the end of this introduction, or dedication,
the writer subscribes Lis name Godemann. This monk of St.
Swithin's subsequently became Abbot of Thorney. Mr. Gage says,
" Although it is likely that this superb volume, filled with beau-
tiful miniatures, and ornaments of the richest design, was finished
before Godemann had the government of the Abbey of Thorney,
we are sure of one thing, that it was executed in this country be-
tween the years 963, when Ethelwold received the episcopal mitre,
and 984, when he died. . . . That Godemann was t'he illuminator
of the manuscript, as well as the writer of it, I see no reason to
doubt. Illumination was part of the art of calligraphy; and ge-
nerally speaking, the miniature painting and the writing in the
early manuscripts are to be presumed the work of the same hand."
To furnish a general idea, though certainly an insufficient one, of
the remarkable merit of the miniatures of this book, we present
copies of the fifth and the seventh plates, as engraved in the ' Archseo-
logia.' Fig. 303 is the second of two miniatures entitled ' Chorus
Virginum.' Fig. 304 is the second of four miniatures, each con-
taining a group of three Apostles. It is fortunately unnecessary
that we should attempt ourselves any critical remarks on the rare
merits of this early work of Anglo-Saxon art ; for in the paper in
the ' Archaeologia ' is inserted a communication from the late Mr.
Ottley, whose familiar acquaintance with the works of the early
masters, both in painting and engraving, and the general correct-
ness of his judgment, have established for him a high reputation.
We extract from his letter a passage which points out not only the
beauties, but defects of this work, and of Anglo-Saxon art in gene-
ral ; and further notices the superiority of the best productions of
this our early school, both in colour and drawing, to the works of
its European contemporaries : —

" In the thirteenth century, as every one knows, the art of paint-
ing and sculpture in Italy received new life at the hands of
Niccola Pisano, Giunta, Cimabue, and Giotto; from which time
they steadily progressed, till the happy era of Giulius the Second
and Leo the Tenth. But for some centuries preceding the thir-
teenth I have sometimes seen reason to conjecture that the aVts
were in a more flourishing state in various countries distant from
Italy than there; to say nothing of Greece, from which, it is pro-
bable, the inhabitants of those countries, like the Italians them-
selves, directly or indirectly, and perhaps at distant periods,
originally derived instruction in those matters. That the art of
miniature painting, especially, was better known and more suc-
cessfully practised in France in the thirteenth century, and probably
long before, than in Italy, has always appeared to me clear, from
the well-known passage in the eleventh canto of Dante's ' Purga-
torio,' where the poet thus addresses Oderigi d'Agubbio, a minia-
ture painter, said to have been the friend of Cimabue : —

" Oh dissi lui non sc tu Oderisi,
L'onor d'Agubbio, e l'onor di quell' arte
Che allumiuar e chiamata a Parisi ?'
(' Art thou not Oderigi ? art not thou
Agubbio's glory, glory of that art
Which they of Paris call the limner's skill ?)

" But to return to St. Ethelwold's manuscript. The next thing
I would mention is the justness of the general proportions of the
figures, especially those larger standing figures of Confessors,
female Saints, and Apostles, which occupy the first seven pages of
the book. The two groups, entitled Chorus Virginum, are parti-
cularly admirable in this respect, as well as for the easy graceful-
ness of the attitudes of some of them, and the cast of the draperies ;
so that, had the faces more beauty and variety of expression, and
were the hands less like one another in their positions, and better
drawn, little would remain to be desired. This deficiency of beauty
in the heads, amounting, I fear I must admit, to positive ugliness,
appears to have been in a great measure occasioned by the difficulty
which the artist encountered in his attempts to finish them with
body-colours ; as may be seen by comparing these heads with those
drawn only in outline in the last miniature in the book ; if indeed
the colouring was not in great part performed by a different person
from him who drew the outlines ; and, I would add, that the fault
is more apparent, throughout the volume, in the large than in the
smaller figures. Indeed, the little angels, holding scrolls or sacred

volumes, especially the two last, have so much gracefulness and
animation, are so beautifully draped, and so well adapted in their
attitudes to the spaces they occupy, that I hardly know how to
praise them sufficiently.

" Wherever the naked parts of the figure are shown, there we
have most evidence of the incompetence of the artist ; and conse-
quently the figures of the Apostles, whose feet and ankles appear
uncovered, are less agreeable than those of the above female Saint.
But, as you are aware, this unskilfulness in the art of drawing the
naked parts of the human figure is not the fault of the painter, but
of the period : and, indeed, it was not until three centuries after the
date of this manuscript, that any notable advancement was made in
this difficult part of the art.

" The draperies of the figures throughout the volume, with scarce
any exception, are well cast ; though the smaller folds are often
too strongly marked in proportion to the larger ones ; which, with
the want of any decided masses of light and shadow distinguishing
those sides of objects which are turned towards the light from such
as are not so, prevents their producing the agreeable effect which
they otherwise would do ; but this, again, is more the fault of the
time than of the artist. The colouring throughout these Illumi-
nations is rich, without being gaudy. It is possible that in the
tenth century some of the gay colours, in the use of which the
miniature painters of more modern times indulged so freely, were
but little known. If I am wrong in this supposition, we must
accord to the illuminator of this manuscript the praise of having
possessed a more chastened taste than many of his successors."

It would be absurd to pretend that the work attributed to Gode-
mann is an average specimen of Anglo-Saxon art. The illumina-
tions, for example, are very superior to those of the sacred poem
known as Caadmon's Metrical Paraphrase of Scripture History,
preserved in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. In these the human
figure is badly drawn ; and there is perhaps more of invention in
the initial letters than in the larger compositions. The poem itself
is a most remarkable production of the early Anglo-Saxon times.
The account which Bede gives of one Ceedmon, the supposed author
of this poem, is a most curious one : — " There was in this Abbess's
Monastery [Abbess Hilda] a certain brother, particularly remark-
able for the grace of God, who was wont to make pious and religious
verses, so that whatever was interpreted to him out of Holy Writ,
he soon after put the same into poetical expressions of much sweetness
and compunction, in his own, that is the English, language. By
his verses the minds of many were often excited to despise the
world, and to aspire to the heavenly life. Others after him attempted
in the English nation to compose religious poems, but none could
ever compare with him ; for he did not learn the art of poetising of
men, but through the divine assistance ; for which reason he never
could compose any trivial or vain poem, but only those that relate
to religion suited his religious tongue ; for having lived in a secular
habit, till well advanced in years, he had never learnt anything of
versifying; for which reason being sometimes at entertainments,
when it was agreed, for the more mirth, that all present should sing
in their turns, when he saw the instrument come towards him, he
rose up from table, and returned home. Having done so at a certain
time, and going out of the house where the entertainment was, to
the stable, the care of horses falling to him that night, and com-
posing himself there to rest at the proper time, a person appeared
to him in his sleep, and saluting him by his name, said, Csedmon,
sing some song to me. He answered, I cannot sing; for that was
the reason why I left the entertainment, and retired to this place,
because I could not sing. The other who talked to him replied,
However, you shall sing. What shall I sing ? rejoined he. Sing
the beginning of creatures, said the other. Hereupon, he presently
began to sing verses to the praise of God, which he had never
heard."

The ode which Caedmon composed under this inspiration is pre-
served in Anglo-Saxon, in King Alfred's translation of Bede's
Ecclesiastical History : and the following is an English translation
from Alfred's version : —

" Now must we praise
The guardian of heaven's kingdom,
The Creator's might,
And his mind's thought ;
Glorious Father of men !
As of every wonder he,
Lord Eternal,
Formed the beginning.
He first framed
For the children of earth
The heaven as a roof;
Holy Creator!

ClIAP. III. J

OLD ENGLAND.

79

Then mid-earth.
The Guardian of mankind,
The eternal Lord,
Afterwards produced
The earth for men,
Lord Almighty !"

The Metrical Paraphrase to which we have alluded is ascribed by
some to a second Caedmon ; but the best philological antiquaries
are not agreed upon this matter. As to its extraordinary merits
tiiere is no difference of opinion. Sir Francis Palgrave says, " The
obscurity attending the origin of the Caedmonian poems will perhaps
increase the interest excited by them. Whoever may have been
their author, their remote antiquity is unquestionable. In poetical
imagery and feeling, they excel all the other early remains of the
North." One of the remarkable circumstances belonging to these
poems, whether written by the cow-herd of Whitby, or some later
monk, is that we here find a bold prototype of the fallen angels of
' Paradise Lost.' Mr. Conybeare says that the resemblance to Mil-
ton is so remarkable in that portion of the poem which relates to the
Fall of Man, that " much of this portion might be almost literally
translated by a cento of lines from that great poet." The resemblance
is certainly most extraordinary, as we may judge from a brief passage
or two. Every one is familiar with the noble lines in the first book
of ' Paradise Lost ' —

"Him the Almighty Power
Hml'd headlong flaming from tli' ethereal sky,
With hideous ruin and combustion, down
To bottomless perdition, there to dwell
In adamantine chains and penal fire,
Who durst defy the Omnipotent to arms.
Nine times the space which measures day and night
To mortal men, he with his horrid cr?w
Lay vanquish'd, rolling in the fiery gulf,
Confounded though immortal."

The Anglo-Saxon Paraphrase of Caedmon was printed at Amsterdam
in 1655. Can there be a question that Milton had read the passage
which Mr. Thorpe thus translated? —

" Then was the Mighty angry,
The highest Ruler of heaven
Hurled him from the lofty seat ;
Hate had he gained at his Lord,
His favour he had lost,

Incensed with him was the Good in his mind.
Therefore he must seek the gulf
Of hard hell- torment,

For that he had warr'd with heaven's Ruler.
He rejected him then from his favour,
And cast him into hell,
Into the deep parts,
When he became a devil :
The fiend with all his comrades
Fell then from heaven above,
Through as long as three nights and days,
The angels from heaven into hell."

Who can doubt that when the music of that speech of Satan
beginning

" Is this the region, this the soil, the clime
That we must change for heaven?"

swelled upon Milton's exquisite ear, the first note was struck by the
rough harmony of Caedmon ? —

" This narrow place is most unlike
That other that we ere knew
High in heaven's kingdom."

It would be quite beside our purpose to attempt any notice, how-
ever brief, of the Anglo-Saxon literature in general. Those who are
desirous of popular information on this most interesting subject may
be abundantly gratified in Mr. Sharon Turner's ' History of the Anglo-
Saxons,' in Mr. Conybeare's ' Illustrations of Saxon Poetry,' and
especially in Mr. Wright's admirable volume of ' Literary Biography '
of ' the Anglo-Saxon period.' The study of the Anglo-Saxon
language and literature is reviving in our times ; and we have little
doubt that the effect will be, in conjunction with that love of our
elder poets which is a healthful sign of an improving taste, to infuse
something of the simple strength of our ancient tongue into the
dilutions and platitudes of the multitudes amongst us " who write
with ease." Truly does old Verstegan say, " Our ancient English
Saxons' language is to be accounted the Teutonic tongue, and albeit
we have in later ages mixed it with many borrowed words, espe-
cially out of the Latin and French, yet remaineth the Teutonic
unto this day the ground of our speech, for no other offspring hath
our language originally had than that." The noble language — " the
tongue that Shakspere spake " — which is our inheritance, may be saved

from corruption by the study of its great Anglo-Saxon elements.
All the value of its composite character may be preserved, with a
due regard to its original structure. So may we best keep our
English with all its honourable characteristics, so well described by
Camden : — " Whereas our tongue is mixed, it is no disgrace. The
Italian is pleasant, but without sinews, as a still fleeting water.
The French delicate, but even nice as a woman, scarce daring to
open her lips, for fear of marring her countenance. The Spanish
majestical, but fulsome, running too much on the o, and terrible
like the devil in a play. The Dutch manlike, but withal very
harsh, as one ready at every word to pick a quarrel. Now we, in
borrowing from them, give the strength of consonants to the Italian ;
the full sound of words to the French ; the variety of terminations
to the Spanish ; and the mollifying of more vowels to the Dutch ;
and so like bees, we gather the honey of their good properties, and
leave their dregs to themselves. And when thus substantialness
combineth with delightfulness, fulness with fineness, seemliness
with portliness, and currentness with staidness, how can the language
which consisteth of all these, sound other than full of all sweetness ?"
(' Remains.')

The coins of a country are amongst the most valuable and in-
teresting of its material monuments. The study of coins is not
to be considered as the province of the antiquary alone. Coins are
among the most certain evidences of history." (' Penny Cyclo-
paedia.') In our engravings we have presented a series of coins,
from the earliest Anglo-Saxon period to the time of Edward the
Confessor. They begin at page 60, Fig. 232 ; and continue in
every page to page 69, Fig. 282. To enter into a minute descrip-
tion of these coins would be tedious to most readers, and not
satisfactory, with our limited space, to the numismatic student.
We shall therefore dismiss this branch of Old England's antiquities
with a few passing remarks suggested by some of this series.

The little silver coin, Fig. 233, is called a sceatta. This is a
literal Anglo-Saxon word which means money ; and when, in Anglo-
Saxon familiar speech, the entertainer at a tavern is called upon to
pay the shot, the coin of Victoria does the same office as the sceat
of the early kings of Kent.

" As the fund of our pleasure, let each pay his shot,"

says Ben Jonson. The penny is next in antiquity to the sceat.
The silver coins of the princes of the Heptarchy are for the most
part pennies. There is an extensive series of such coins of the
kings of Mercia. The halfpenny and the farthing are the ancient
names of the division of the 'penny ; they are both mentioned in
the Saxon Gospels. The coins of Offa, king of Mercia (Fig. 234),
are remarkable for the beauty of their execution, far exceeding in
correctness of drawing and sharpness of impression those of his
predecessors or successors. " At the beginning of the ninth cen-
tury Ecgbeorht or Egbert ascended the throne of the West Saxon
kingdom ; and in the course of his long reign, brought under his
dominion nearly the whole of the Heptarchic states ; he is there-
fore commonly considered as the first sole monarch of England,
notwithstanding those states were not completely united in one
sovereignty until the reign of Edgar. On his coins, he is usually
styled Ecgbeorht Rex, and sometimes the word Saxonum is added
in a monogram, within the inner circle of the obverse : some of his
coins have a rude representation of his head, and some are without
it. From Egbert's time, with very few exceptions, the series of
English pennies is complete ; indeed, for many hundred years, the
penny was the chief coin in circulation." (' Penny Cyclopaedia.')
The silver pennies of Alfred bear a considerable price ; and this
circumstance may be attributed in some degree to the desire which
individuals in all subsequent ages would feel, to possess some me-
morial of a man who, for four hundred years after his death, was
still cherished in the songs and stories of the Anglo-Saxon popula-
tion, mixed as they were with Norman blood, as the Shepherd of
the people, the Darling of England (Figs. 268, 272). A relic,
supposed more strictly to pertain to the memory of Alfred, is now
in the Ashmolean Museum at. Oxford. It is an ornament of gold
which was found in the Isle of Athelney, the scene of Alfred's
retreat during the days of his country's oppression. The inscrip-
tion round the figure, holding flowers, means, "Alfred had me
wrought" (Fig. 309). The Saxon lantern, which Strutt has en-
graved in his 'Chronicle of England' (Fig. 310), is also asso
ciated with the memory of Alfred, in that story which Asser, his
biographer, tells of him, that he invented a case of horn and wood
for his wax candle, by the burning of which he marked the pro-
gress of time. The genuineness of Asser's Biograpliy has been
recently questioned ; but there is little doubt that its facts wero

315 — Great Seal of Edward the Confessor.

319.— Harold's Interview with King'Edward on his return from Normandy, (Bayeux Tapestry .)

316.— Great Seal of Edward the, Confessor.

322.— Coronation of IJarold. (Bayeux Tapestry.)

317.— The Sicknessand Death of Edward the Confessor. (Bayeux Tapestry.)

fiO

329— Normans carrying Arms and Provisions for the Invading Fleet. (Bayeux Tapestry.,)

531. -The Military Habits of the AoglWSazons

*Y/V':)

V i r I J
/ T / /V
' f\ ^ ' i

<?

—Anglo-Saxon Weapons.

330.— Battle Scene. (From the Cotton MS. Claud. B i.

332. -Anglo-Saxon Weapons.

325.— Harold's Appearance at the Court cf tho Count of Ponthieu. (Bayeux Tapestry.)

121,— Harold coming t J anchor on the Coast of Xormandy. Bayeux Tapestry )

328.— A Ship of the fleet of Duke William transporting Troops for the Invasion of England.

(Bayeux Tapestry.)

S2T.-Wiiliam giving orders for the Invasion, (Bayeux Tapestry )

ro.ii.

326.-Harold's Oath to William, (Bayeux Tapestry)

81

82

OLD ENGLAND.

[Book 1.

founded upon an older narrative. The portrait of Alfred (Fig.
308) is copied from that in Spelman's ' Life :' but the materials
out erf which it is composed are probably not much to be relied
upon.

There is a very remarkable object in Berkshire, not a great dis-
tance from "Wantage, the birth-place of Alfred, which has been
considered a memorial of the bravery and patriotism which he dis-
played even before he came to the throne. In the reign of Ethelred
the First, the brother of Alfred, the Danes, who had invaded Berk-
shire, were routed with great slaughter in a battle known as that of
^Escesdun (Ash-tree Hill) ; and it was contended by Dr. Wise, a
learned antiquary of the last century, that the ridge of chalk hills
extending from "Wantage into Wiltshire was the scene of this battle,
and that the "White Horse which is cut out on the slope of fhe
chalk is a memorial of this great victory. The White Horse, which
gives its name to the hill, and to the fertile valley beneath, is a most
singular object. It is a rude figure, three hundred and seventy-four
feet in length, formed by removing the turf, and laying bare the
chalk, on the north-west face of this hill, just above a lofty and
steep declivity, which is visible from the surrounding country.
When the afternoon sun shines upon this side of the ridge, the
White Horse may be seen from a great distance — as far, it is said,
as fifteen miles. Lysons mentions that there was a tradition that
lands in the neighbourhood were formerly held by the tenure of
cleaning the White Horse, by cutting away the springing turf. An
annual festival was once held at this ancient ceremonial labour,
tailed by the people Scouring the Horse. But as the regard for
ancient memorials was dying out within the last century, and the
peasants of Berkshire were ground down to a worse than serf-like con-
dition of dependence on the poor-rates, the old festival was given
up, the White Horse was left to be overgrown and obliterated,
and even the memory of Alfred lived no longer amongst his Saxon
descendants in these lonely valleys, who had grown up in ignorance
and pauperism, because the humanities which had associated their
forefathers with their superiors in rank were unwisely severed.
The age of festivals, whether of religion or patriotism, is gone. We
ought to mention that some antiquaries differ from Dr. Wise, and
believe the White Horse to be of earlier origin than the age of
Alfred. There can be no question, however, that it is a work of
very high antiquity.

The civil government of the Anglo-Saxons, whether under the
Heptarchy, or after the kings of Wessex had obtained that ascen-
dency which constituted the united monarchy of all England, is
associated with very few existing monuments beyond those of its
medal lie history. There was an ancient chapel at Kingston existing
about half a century ago, in which kings Edrid, Edward the Mar-
tyr, and Etlielred are stated to have been crowned. That chapel
is now destroyed (Fig. 305). An engraving was made of it whilst
the tradition was concurrent with the existence of the old building.
Kingston was unquestionably the crowning place of the Saxon
kings. There is a remarkable little church existing at Greensted, a
village about a mile from Ongar, in Essex. It was described about
a century ago in the ' Vetusta Monumenta' of the Society of
Antiquaries ; and attention has recently been called to it by a
correspondent of the ' Penny Magazine.' " In one of the early
incursions of the Danes into England (a. d. 870), Edmund, King
of East Anglia, was taken prisoner by them, and, refusing to
abjure the Christian religion, put to a cruel death. He was a
favourite of the people, but especially of the priests ; and came
naturally, therefore, to be spoken of as a martyr, and his remains
to be held in estimation as those of a saint. In the reign of
Etlielred the Unready, the Danes, emboldened by the cowardice or
feeble policy of the king, who only sought to buy them off from
day to day, and made tyrannous by the diminished opposition every-
where offered to them, ravaged the country in all directions, until
at length, in the year 1010, 'that dismal period,' as Mr. Sharon
Turner calls it, ' their triumph was completed in the surrender of
sixteen counties of England and the payment of forty-eight thou-
sand pounds.' In this year the bones of St. Edmund were removed
from Ailwin to London, to prevent their falling into the hands of
the Danes. They appear to have remained in London about three
years, when they were carried back to Bedriceworth (Bury St. Ed-
mund's). A MS. cited by Dugdale in the ' Monasticon,' and
entitled ' Registnim Ccenobii S. Edmundi,' informs us that on its
return to Bury, ' his body was lodged (hospitabatur) at Aungre,
where a wooden chapel remains as a memorial to this day.' It is
this same ' wooden chapel ' which is supposed to form the nave of
Greensted church. The inhabitants of the village have always had
a tradition that the corpse of a king rested in it, and the appear-
ance of the building vouches for its great antiquity " (Fig. 30<3).

The Witenagemot, or the great council of the nation — prelates,
ealdormen, and thanes or governors of boroughs, with the crowned
king presiding — is represented in one of the Cotton manuscripts in
the British Museum (Fig. 307). We have an example of the
almost regal dignity of the greater noblemen, in the remarkable seal
of Alfric Earl of Mercia, who lived towards the end of the tenth
century. The earl not only bears the sword of authority, but weirs
a diadem (Fig. 313). There are representations of particular
monarchs in Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, which are perhaps more
valuable as examples of costume than as individual portraits. Such
is that of King Edgar (Fig. 311), and of Canute and his queen
(Fig. 312).

The seal which we have mentioned (or rather, the brass matrix of
the seal) of Alfric, Earl of Mercia, which was found by a labourer
in cutting away a bank near Winchester in 1832, is one of seveial
proofs which have set at rest a long-disputed question as to the use
of seals among the Anglo-Saxons. The legal antiquaries of the
seventeenth century, such as Selden and Coke, speak without any
hesitation of charters with seals granted by the Saxon kings. Mr.
Astle, a very competent authority, asserted in 1791, that our Saxon
ancestors did not use seals of wax appended to their deeds (' Archae-
ologia,' vol. x.). He acknowledged, however, that if such a seal
could be found of a date before the time of the Confessor, the
argument against their use, derived from the fact that the word
Sigillum did not always mean seal, would be set at rest. The
opinion of Astle was founded upon that of earlier antiquaries. The
late Mr. Douce, in some remarks upon two wax impressions of the
seal of the Abbey of Wilton, which he believes to be the original
Anglo-Saxon seal, notices these objections: "If Dr. Hickes and
the other objectors could have expected successfully to demonstrate
that the Saxons used no seals, it was necessary for them to annihi-
late not only the numerous early seals of the German emperors and
French kings, but even the gems and other sigillatory implements
of the ancients. It would, indeed, have been a remarkable circum-
stance, that during a period wherein many of the European
monarchs were continuing the immemorial practice of affixing seals to
public instruments, the Saxon sovereigns of England, who were not
inferior in knowledge and civilization to their contemporaries, and
who borrowed many of their customs from Italy and France, should
have entirely suspended a practice so well known and established.
It is much less extraordinary that a very small number of Saxon
seals should be remaining, than that, all circumstances considered,
they should not have been frequently used. All that the objectors
have been able to prove is, that a great many Saxon instruments
were destitute of seals ; that some were forged with seals in Is'or-
man times; and that the words ' Signum ' and ' Sigillum ' were often
used to express the mere signature of a cross, which nevertheless
was the representative of a seal." In 1821, the seal of Ethel wald,
Bishop of Dunwich, was found about a hundred yards from the site
of the Monastery of Eye. That remarkable seal is now in the
British Museum ; and Mr. Hudson Gurney, who transmitted an
account of it to the Society of Antiquaries, says, " On the whole I
conceive there can remain no doubt but that this was the genuine
seal of Ethelwald, Bishop of Dunwich, about the middle of the
ninth century, and that it sets at rest the question hitherto in dis
pute touching the use of seals among the Anglo-Saxons."

These few remarks may not improperly introduce to our readers
the first of an uninterrupted series of monuments belonging to our
monarchical government — the great seals of England. The seal of
King Edward the Confessor is represented in Figs. 315 and 316.
On one side, according to the description of this seal by Sir Henry-
Ellis, the king " is represented sitting on a throne bearing on his
head a sort of mitre, in his right hand he holds a sceptre finishing
in a cross, and in his left a globe. On the other side he is also
represented with the same sort of head-dress, sitting. In his right a
sceptre finishing with a dove. On his left a sword, the hilt pressed
toward his bosom. On each side is the same legend — Sigillum
Eadwardi Anglorum Basilei. This seal of King Edward
is mentioned several times in the ' Domesday Survey.' "
(' Archaeologia,' vol. xviii.). The seal of William the Conqueror,
which belongs to the next book, is little superior in workmanship to
that of the Confessor ; and the sitting figures of each have consider-
able resemblance (Fig. 342). The impression of the seal of the
Conqueror is preserved in the Hotel Soubise at Paris, being
appended to a charter by which the king granted some land in
England to the abbey of Sr. Denis, in France. This seal establishes
the fact that grants of lands immediately after the Conquest were
guaranteed by the affixing of a waxen seal ; and although this
might not be invariably the case, it goes far to throw a doubt upon
the authenticity of the old rhyming grant said to be made by

Chap. III.J

OLD ENGLAND.

83

William to the ancient family of the Hoptons, which Stow and
other early antiquaries have believed to be authentic. Stow gives
it in his 'Annals,' upon " the testimony of an old chronicle in the
library at Richmont," omitting three introductory lines, upon the
authority of which in the sixteenth centary a legal claim was
actually set up to the estate of the lords of Hopton :—

" To the heirs male of the Hopton lawfully begotten :—
From me and from mine, to thee and to thine,
While the water runs, and the sun doth shine ;
For lack of heirs, to the king again.
I, William, king, the third year of my reign,
Give to thee, Norman Huntere,
To me that art both lefe and dear,
The Hop and Hoptown,
And all the bounds up and down,
Under the earth to hell,
Above the earth to heaven,
From me and from mine,
To thee and to thine,
As good and as fair
As ever they mine were.
To witness that this is sooth,
I bite the white wax with my tooth,
Before Jugg, Maud, and Margery,
And my third son Henry,
For one bow and one broad arrow,
When I come to hunt upon Yarrow."

We five the above, with some slight corrections, from Blount's
* Ancient Tenures.'

The most extraordinary memorial of that eventful period of tran-
sition, which saw the descendants of the old Saxon conquerors of
Britain swept from their power and their possessions, and their
places usurped by a swarm of adventurers from the shores of Nor-
mandy, is a work not of stone or brass, not of writing and illumi-
nation more durable than stone or brass, but a roll of needlework,
which records the principal events which preceded and accompanied
the Conquest, with a minuteness and fidelity which leave no reason-
able doubt of its being a contemporary production. This is the
celebrated Bayeux Tapestry. AVhen Napoleon contemplated the
invasion of England in 1803, he caused this invaluable record to be
removed from Bayeux, and to be exhibited in the National Museum
at Paris ; and then the French players, always ready to seize upon
a popular subject, produced a little drama in which they exhibited
Matilda, the wife of the Conqueror, sitting in her lonely tower in
Normandy whilst her husband Mas fighting in England, and thus
recording, with the aid of her needlewomen, the mighty acts of her
hero, portrayed to the life in this immortal worsted-work. But
there is a more affecting theory of the accomplishment of this la-
bour than that told in the French vaudeville. The women of Eng-
land were celebrated all over Europe for their work in embroidery ;
and when the husband of Matilda ascended the throne of England,
it is reasonably concluded that the skilful daughters of the land
were retained around the person of the queen. They were thus
employed to celebrate their own calamities. But there was nothing
in this tapestry which told a tale of degradation. There is no
delineation of cowardly flight or abject submission. The colours
of the threads might have been dimmed witli the tears of the workers,
but they would not have had the deep pain of believing that their
homes were not gallantly defended. In this great invasion and con-
quest, as an old historian has poetically said, " was tried by the
great assise of God's judgment in battle the right of power between
the English and Norman nations — a battle the most memorable of
all others ; and, howsoever miserably lost, yet most nobly fought
on the part of England." There was nothing in this tapestry to
encourage another invasion eight centuries later. In one of the
compartments of the tapestry were represented men gazing at a
meteor or comet, which was held to presage the defeat of the Saxon
Harold. A meteor had appeared in the south of France, at the
time of the exhibition of the tapestry in 1803 ; and the mountebank
Napoleon proclaimed that the circumstances were identical. The
tapestry, having served its purpose of popular delusion, was returned
to its original obscurity. It had previously been known to Lancelot
and Montfaucon, French antiquaries; and Dr. Ducarel, in 1767,
printed a description of it, in which he stated that it was annually
hung up round the nave of the church of Bayeux on St. John's day.
During the last thirty years this ancient work has been fully
described, and its date and origin discussed. Above all, the Society
of Antiquaries have rendered a most valuable service to the world,
by causing a complete set of coloured fac-simile drawings to be
made by an accomplished artist, Mr. Charles Stothard, which have

since been published in the ' Vetusta Monumenta.' The more
remarkable scenes of the seventy-two compartments of the tapestry
are engraved in our pages : and we may fitly close our account of
the antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon period with a brief notice of
this most interesting historical record.

In the Hotel of the Prefecture at Bayeux is now preserved this
famous tapestry. In 1814, so little was known of it in the town
where it had remained for so many centuries, that Mr. Hudson
Gurney was coming away without discovering it, not being aware
that it went by the name of the " Toile de St. Jean." It was
coiled round a windlass ; and drawing it out at leisure over a table,
he found that it consisted of "a very long piece of brownish linen
cloth, worked with woollen thread of different colours, which are as
bright and distinct, and the letters of the superscriptions as legible,
as if of yesterday." The roll is twenty inches broad, and two
hundred and fourteen feet in length. Mr. Gurney has some sen-
sible remarks upon the internal evidence of the work being
contemporaneous with the Conquest. In the buildings portrayed
there is not the trace of a pointed arcli ; there is not an indication
of armorial bearings, properly so called, which would certainly
have been given to the fighting knights had the needlework
belonged to a later age ; and the Norman banner is invariably
Argent, a cross Or in a border Azure, and not the later in-
vention of the Norman leopards. Mr. Gurney adds, " It may be
remarked, that the whole is worked with a strong outline ; that the
clearness and relief are given to it by the variety of the colours."
The likenesses of individuals are preserved throughout. The
Saxons invariably wear moustaches ; and William, from his erect
figure and manner, could be recognised were there no superscriptions.
Mr. Charles Stothard, who made the drawings of the tapestry
which have been engraved by the Society of Antiquaries, com-
municates some interesting particulars in a letter written in 1819.
He adds to Mr. Gurney's account of its character as a work of art,
that " there is no attempt at light and shade, or perspective, the
want of which is substituted by the use of different-coloured worsteds.
We observe this in the off-legs of the horses, which are distinguished
alone from the near-legs by being of different-colours. The horses,
the hair, and mustachios, as well as the eyes and features of the
characters, are depicted with all the various colours of green, blue,
red, &c, according to the taste or caprice of the artist. This may
be easily accounted for, when we consider how few colours composed
their materials."

The first of the seventy-two compartments into which the roll of
needlework is divided, is inscribed "Edwardus Bex" (Fig. 318).
We omit the inscriptions which occur in each compartment, except
in two instances. The crowned king, seated on a chair of state,
with a sceptre, is giving audience to two persons in attendance ;
and this is held to represent Harold departing for Normandy. The
second shows Harold, and his attendants with hounds, on a journey.
He bears the hawk on his hand, the distinguishing mark of nobilitv.
The inscription purports that the figures represent Harold, Duke of
the English, and his soldiers, journeying to Bosham (Fig. 320).
The third is inscribed " Ecclesia," and exhibits a Saxon church,
with two bending figures about to enter. This we have given in
another place, as an architectural illustration (Fig. 216). The
fourth compartment rep esents Harold embarking; and the fifth
shows him on his voyage. We give the sixth (Fig. 324), which is
his coming to anchor previous to disembarking on the coast of
Normandy. The seventh and eighth compartments exhibit the
seizure of Harold by the Count of Ponthieu. The ninth (Fig.
325) shows Harold remonstrating with Guy, the Count, upon his
unjust seizure.

We pass over the compartments from ten to twenty-five, inclusive,
which exhibit various circumstances connected with the sojourn
of Harold at the court of William. Mr. Stothard has justly ob-
served, " That whoever designed this historical record was intimately
acquainted with whatever was passing on the Norman side, is
evidently proved by that minute attention to familiar and local
circumstances evinced in introducing, solely in the Norman party,
characters certainly not essential to the great events connected witli
the story of the work." The twenty-sixth compartment (Fig. 326)
represents Harold swearing fidelity to William, with each hand on
a shrine of relics. All the historians appear to be agreed that
Harold did take an oath to William to support his claims to the
crown of England, whatever might have been the circumstances
under which that oath was extorted from him. The twenty-seventh
compartment exhibits Harold's return to England ; and the twenty-
eighth shows him on his journey after landing. For the con-
venience of referring to those parts of the tapestry which are
connected with King Edward the Confessor, we have grouped them

M 2

340.— Group associated withthe Conquest.

84

338.— Battle of Hastings. (Bayeux Tapestry.)

' 339 .-Death of Harold (Bayetu Tapestry.)

<^mWM

311.— William I. and Tonstain bearing the Consecrated Banner
at the Battle of Hastings. (Baycus Tapestry.)

312.— Great Seal of William the Conqueror.

344.— Silver Penny of William I. (From specimen in Biit. M.U3.)

S43.— Arms of William the Conqueror.

348.— The Abbey of St. Etienne (Stephen.) Caen.' '

347.— .Statue of William the Conqueror. Placed against one of the external Pillars of St Stephen, Caen.

85

86

OLD ENGLAND.

[Book i

in o:ie pag3 (80), not following their order in the tapestry. The
twenty-ninth compartment (Fig. 319) has an inscription purport-
ing that Harold comes to Edward the King. The thirtieth shows
the funeral procession of the deceased Edward to Westminster
Abbey, a hand out of heaven pointing to that building as a
monument of his piety (Fig. 321). The inscription says, "Here
the body of Edward the King is borne to the church of St. Peter
the Apostle." The thirty-first and thirty-second compartments
exhibit the sickness and death of the Confessor (Fig. 317). The
thirty-third shows the crown offered to Harold (Fig. 322). The
thirty-fourth presents us Harold on the throne, with Stigant the
Archbishop (Fig. 323). Then comes the compartment represent-
ing the comet already mentioned ; and that is followed by one
showing William giving orders for the building of ships for the
invasion of England (Fig. 327). We have then compart-
ments, in which men are cutting down trees, building ships,
dragging along vessels, and bearing arms and armour. The forty-
third has an inscription, " Here they draw a car witli wine and
arms" (Fig. 329). After a compartment with William on horse-
back, we have the fleet on its voyage. The inscription to this
recounts that he passes the sea with a great fleet, and comes to
Pevensey. Three other compartments show the disembarkation of
horses, the hasty march of cavalry, and the seizure and slaughter of
animals for (he hungry invaders. The forty-ninth compartment
bears the inscription " This is Wadard." Who this personage on
horseback, thus honoured, could be, was a great puzzle, till the
name was found in Domesday-Book as a holder of land in six
English counties, under Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, the Conqueror's
half-brother. This is one of the circumstances exhibiting the
minute knowledge of the designers of this needlework. The
fiftieth and fifty-first compartments present us the cooking and
the feasting of the Norman army (Fig. 335). We have then the
dining of the chiefs ; the Duke about to dine, whilst 0 lo blesses

the food ; and the Duke sitting under a canopy. The fifiy-fiftli
shows him holding a banner, and giving orders for the construction
of a camp at Hastings (Fig. 334).

Six other compartments show us the burning of a house with
firebrands, the march out of Hastings, the advance to the battle,
and the anxious questioning by William of his spies and scouts as
to the approach of the army of Harold. The sixty-third presents a
messenger announcing to Harold that the army of William is near
at hand. The sixty-fourth bears the inscription, that Duke William
addresses his soldiers that they should prepare themselves boldly
and skilfully for the battle. We have then six compartments, each
exhibiting some scene of the terrible conflict (Figs. 337, 338). The
seventy-first shows the death of Harold (Fig. 339). The tapestry
abruptly ends with the figures of flying soldiers.

We have probably been somewhat too minute in the description
of this remarkable performance. If any apology be necessary, it
may be best offered in the words of Mr. Amyot, in his ' Defence of
the Early Antiquity of the Bayeux Tapestry,' which is almost
conclusive as to the fact of its being executed under the direction
of Matilda, the wife of the Conqueror (' Archaeologia,' vol. xix).
" If the Bayeux Tapestry be not history of the first cl iss, it is
perhaps something better. It exhibits genuine traits, elsewhere
sought in vain, of the costume and manners of that age which, of all
others, if we except the period of the Reformation, ought to be the
most interesting to us ; that age which gave us a new race of
monarchs, bringing with them new landholders, new laws, and
almost a new language. As in the magic pages of Froissart, we
here behold our ancestors of each race in most of the occupations
of life — in courts and camps — in pastime and in battle — at feasts,
and on the bed of sickness. These are characteristics which of
themselves would call forth a lively interest; but their value is
greatly enhanced by their connection with one of the most important
events in history, the main subject of the whole design."

I

END OF BOOK 1.

CHAPTER I.— REGAL AND BARONIAL ANTIQUITIES.

NAYIOIO MARE
ET TENTT AD

N MAGNO

TRANSIVIT,

PeVENSJE.

Such is the inscription to
the forty-fifth compartment
of the Bayeux Tapestry — In
a great ship he passes the
sea, and comes to Pevensey.
The Bay of Pevensey is not
now as it was on the 28th of
September, a.d. 1066, when
this great ship sailed into it,
and a bold man, one whose
stern will and powerful mind
was to change the destiny of
England, leaped upon the
strand, and, falling upon his face, a great cry went forth that it was
an evil omen ; — but the omen was turned into a sign of gladness
when he exclaimed, with his characteristic oath, " I have taken
seisin of this land with both my hands." The shores of the bay are
now a dreary marsh, guarded by dungeon-looking towers, which
were built to defend us from such another seisin (Fig. 349). The
sea once covered this marsh, and the Norman army came a mile or
io nearer to the chalk, hills, beyond which they knew there was a
land of tempting fertility. It must have been somewhat near the
old Roman castle that the disembarkation took place, whose inci-
dents are exhibited in the Bayeux Tapestry. Here were the
horses removed from the ships : here each horseman mounted his
own, and galloped about to look upon a land in which he saw no
enemy ; here were the oxen and the swine of the Saxon farmer
slaughtered by those for whom they were fatted not ; here was the
cooking, and the dining, and the rude pomp of the confident Duke
who knew that his great foe was engaged in a distant conflict. The
character of William of Normandy was so remarkable, and indeed was
such an element of success in his daring attempt upon the English
crown, that what is personally associated with him, even though
it be found not in our own island, belongs to the antiquities of
England. He was a stark man, as the Saxon chronicler describes
him from personal knowledge, a man of unbending will and ruthless
determination, but of too lofty a character to be needlessly cruel or
wantonly destructive. Of his pre-eminent abilities there can be no
question. Connected with such a man, then, his purposes and his

success, the remains of his old Palace at Lillebonne (Fig. 345),
which may be readily visited by those who traverse the Seine in its
steam-boats, is an object of especial interest to an Englishman.
For here was the great Council held for the invasion of England,
and the attempt was determined against by the people collectively,
but the wily chief separately won the assent of their leaders, and the
collective voice was raised in vain. More intimately associated
with the memory of the Conqueror is the Church of St. Etienne at
Caen (Fig. 348), which he founded ; and where, deserted by his
family and his dependants, the dead body of the sovereign before
whom all men had trembled was hurried to the grave, amidst fearful
omens and the denunciations of one whom he had persecuted. The
mutilated statue of William may be seen on the exterior of the same
church (Fig. 347). In England we have one monument, connected
in the same distinct manner with his personal character, whilst it
is at the same time a memorial of his ^reat triumph and the revolu-
tion which was its result — we mean Battle Abbey. When Harold
heard —

"That due Wyllam to Hastynges was ycome,"
he gallantly set forward to meet him — but with an unequal force. He
knew the strength of his enemy, but he did not quail before it.
The chroniclers say that Harold's spies reported that there were
more priests in William's camp than fighting men in that of
Harold ; and they add that the Saxon knew better than the spies
that the supposed priests were good men-at-arms. Mr. Stothard,
in his ' Account of the Bayeux Tapestry,' points out, with refer-
ence to the figures of the Normans, that " not only are their upper
lips shaven, but nearly the whole of their heads, excepting a portion
of hair left in front." He adds, " It is a curious circumstance in
favour of the great antiquity of the Tapestry, that time has, I believe,
handed down to us no other representation of this most singular
fashion, and it appears to throw a new light on a fact which has
perhaps been misunderstood : the report made by Harold's spies
that the Normans were an army of priests is well known. I should
conjecture, from what appears in the Tapestry, that their resemblance
to priests did not so much arise from the upper lip being shaven, as
from the circumstance of the complete tonsure of the back part of
the head." Marching out from their entrenched camp at Hastings
(Fig. 350), the Normans, all shaven and shorn, encountered the
moustached Saxons on the 14th of October. The Tapestry repre-
sents the Saxons fighting on foot, with javelin and battle-axer
bearing their shields with the old British characteristic of a boss in

.^.-Third Story of Conisborougb Castle. 356.-Fourtb Story of Conisborough Castle

350.— Hastings, from tbe Falrligbt Downs.

357.— Conisborough Castle.

86

351.— Battle Abbey, as it appeared about 150 years since

c£ iWi^i# JtaV%c^*ucf -^ e- £«Vt • ca^ In cWo force

ccti^cr^c cu'^vmttv I) t&tmcUrnofvna.. U> i ty • [crui • 7u -mo
Inn, cUax$ §£J&&\,& ]3ti.ovW^6cl.p^'j.^tp(a,c
-til p^fco -r-cgif.

363.— Specimen of Domesday- Book.

358 —Battle Abbey Gateway.

362.— YValmsgate Barbican, York.

359.— Richmond, Yerkshire.

No. 12.

3C0 - Richmond Castle, from the River Swale.

361.— The Keep of Richmond Castle.

89

so

OLD ENGLAND.

[Book J l.

the centre. The Normans are on horseback, with ' their long
shields and their pennoned lances. It is not for us to describe the
terrible conflict. "The English," says William of Malmesbury,
" rendered all they owed to their country." Harold and his two
brothers fell at the foot of their standard which they had planted
on the little hill of Senlac, and on this spot, whose name was sub-
sequently changed to Bataille, was built Battle Abbey (Fig. 351).
It was not the pride of the Conqueror alone that raised up this

'nice magnificent

monument. The stern man, the hot and pas-

sionate man, the man who took what he could get by right and

unright, " was mild to

good

men who loved God." And so he

built Battle Abbey.

Robert of Gloucester has thus described, in his quaint verse, the
foundation of Battle Abbey: —

" King William bithemgt him alsoe of that

Folke that was forlorne,
And slayn also thorurg him

In the bataile bifome.
And ther as the bataile was,

An Abbey he lete rere
Of Seint Martin, for the soules

That there slayn were.
And the monks wel ynoug

Feffed without fayle,
That is called in Englonde

Abbey of Bataile."

Brown Willis tells us that in t"he fine old parish-church of Battle
was formerly hung up a table containing certain verses, of which
.the following remained : —

" This place of war is Battle called, because in battle here
Quite conquered and overthrown the English nation were.
This slaughter happened to them upon St. Ceelict's day,*
The year whereof. this number doth array."

The politic Conqueror did wisely thus to change the associations,
if it were possible, which belonged to this fatal spot. He could not
obliterate the remembrance of the " day of bitterness," the " day of
death," the "day stained with the blood of the brave" (Matthew
of Westminster). Even the red soil of Senlac was held, with
patriotic superstition, to exude real and fresh blood after a small
shower, " as if intended for a testimony that the voice of so much
Christian blood here shed does still cry from the earth to the Lord "
(Gulielmus Neubrigensis). This Abbey of Bataille is unquestion-
ably a place to be trod with reverent contemplation by every
Englishman who has heard of the great event that here took place,
and has traced its greater consequences. He is of the mixed blood
of the conquerors and the conquered. It has been written of him
and his compatriots —

" Pride in their port, defiance in their eye,
I see the lords of human kind pass by."

His national character is founded upon the union of the Saxon 'de-
termination and the Norman energy. As he treads the red soil of
Senlac, if his reformed faith had not taught him otherwise, he would
breathe a petition for all the souls, Saxon and Norman, " that there
slain were." The Frenchman, whose imagination has been stirred
by Thierry's picturesque and philosophical history of the Norman
Conquest, will tread this ground with no national prejudices; for
the roll of Battle Abbey will show him that those inscribed as
the followers of the Conqueror had Saxon as well as Norman names,
and that some of the most illustrious of the names have long been
the common property of England and of France. But the intelli-
gent curiosity of the visitor to the little town of Battle will be
somewhat checked, when he finds that the gates of the Abbey are
rigidly closed against him except for a few hours of one day in the
week. " The Abbey and grounds can be only seen on Monday,"
truly says the Hastings Guide. Be it so. There is not much lost
by the traveller who comes here on one of the other five days of the
week. The sight of this place is a mortifying one. The remains
of the fine cloisters have been turned into a dining-room, and, to
use the words of the ' Guide-Book,' " Part of the site of the church
is now a parterre which in summer exhibits a fine collection of Flora's
greatest beauties." This was the very church whose high altar was
described by the old writers to have stood on the spot where the body
of Harold was found, covered with honourable wounds in the defence
of his tattered standard. " Flora's greatest beauties !" " Few per-
sons," adds the ' Guide-Book,' " have the pleasure of admission." We
do not envy the few. If they can look upon this desecration of a spot
so singularly venerable without a burning blush for some foregone
barbarism, they must be made of different stuff from the brave who
here fought to the death because they had a country which not only
afforded them food and shelter, but the memory of great men and
* St. CaJixtus, October the 14th.

heroic deeds, which was to them an inheritance to be prized and
defended.

The desecration of Battle Abbey of course began at the general
pillage under Henry the Eighth. The Lord Cromwell's Commis-
sioners write to him that they have " cast their book " for the de-
spatch of the monks and household. They think that very small
money can be made of the vestry, but they reckon the plunder of
the church plate to amount to four hundred marks. Within three
months after the surrender of the Abbey it was granted to Sir
Anthony Browne ; and he at once set about pulling down the church, .
the bell-tower, the sacristy, and the chapter-house. The spoiler
became Viscount Montacute ; and in this family Battle Abbey
continued, till it was sold, in 1719, to Sir Thomas Webster. It
has been held, and no doubt truly, that many of the great names
that figure on the roll of Battle Abbey were those of very subordi-
nate people in the army of the Conqueror ; and it is possible that
the descendants of some of those who roasted for the great Duke the
newly-slaughtered sheep on the strand at Pevensey may now look
with contempt upon a patent of nobility not older than the days of the
Stuarts. But, with all this, it is somewhat remarkable that Battle
Abbey, with its aristocratic associations, should have fallen into
the hands of a lineal descendant of the master-cook to Queen
Elizabeth. Sir Thomas was ' an enterprising bustling man, who
was singularly lucky in South Sea Stock, and had the merit of
encouraging the agricultural improvements of Jethro Tull. For
the succeeding century of Sir Whistlers and Sir Godfreys, the work
of demolition and change has regularly gone forward. The view
(Fig. 351) exhibits Battle Abbey as it was about the time that it
went out of the Montacute family. Brown Willis, who wrote a
little after the same period, thus describes it in his day : — " Though
this abbey be demolished, yet the magnificence of it appears by the
ruins of the cloisters, &c, and by the largeness of the hall, kitchen,
and gate-house, of which the last is entirely preserved. It is a
noble pile, and in it are held sessions and other meetings, for this
peculiar jurisdiction, which hath still great privileges belonging to
it. What the hall was, when in its glory, may be guessed by its
dimensions, its length above fifty of my paces ; part of it is now
used as a hay-barn ; it was leaded, part of the lead yet remains,
and the rest is tiled. As to the kitchen, it was so large as to contain
five fire-places, and it was arched at top ; but the extent of the
whole abbey may be better measured by the compass of it, it being
computed at no less than a mile about. In this church the Conqueror
offered up his sword and royal robe, which he wore on the day of his
coronation. The monks kept these till the suppression, and used
to show them as great curiosities, and worthy the sight of their best
friends, and all persons of distinction that happened to come thither :
nor were they less careful about preserving a table of the Norman
gentry which came into England with the Conqueror."

Horace Walpole has given us a notion of the condition of Battle
Abbey, and the taste which presided over it, a century ago. He
visited it in 1752, and thus writes to Mr. Bentley : " Battle Abbey
stands at the end of the town, exactly as Warwick castle does of
Warwick ; but the house of Webster have taken due care that it
should not resemble it in anything else. A vast building which
they call the old refectory, but which I believe was the original
church, is now barn, coach-house, &c. The situation is noble,
above the level of abbeys : what does remain of gateways and towers
is beautiful, particularly the flat side of a cloister, which is now the
front of the mansion-house. A Miss of the family has clothed a
fragment of a portico with cockle-shells I"

A general view of Battle Abbey in its present state may be best
obtained by passing the old wall, and continuing on the Hastings
road for about half a mile. A little valley will then have been
crossed ; and from the eminence on the south-east the modern build-
ing, with its feeble imitations of antiquity, and its few antiquarian
realities, is offered pretty distinctly to the pedestrian's eye. What
is perhaps better than such a view, he may, from this spot, survey
this remarkable battle-field, and understand its general character.
The rights of property cannot shut him out from this satisfaction.
The ancient gateway to the abbey, which stands boldly up in the
principal street in the town of Battle, is of much more recent architec-
ture than the original abbey. Some hold it to be of the time of Edward
the Third ; but the editor of the last edition of ' Dugdale's Monas-
ticon ' considers it to be that of Henry the Sixth (Fig. 358).

In the group (Fig. 340) we have given the seal of Battle Abbey,
in the lower compartment on the right. The group also contains
portraits of the Conqueror and of Harold, views of Pevensey and of
Hastings, and a vignette of a Norman and Saxon soldier. The
seal of Battle Abbey still remains in the Augmentation Office,
attached to the deed of surrender in the time of Henrv the Eiehth.

Chap. I.J

OLD ENGLAND

91

The side which our engraving' represents exhibits a church, having
an ornamented gateway and tower, witli four turrets. This, there
can be little doubt, represents the church which Sir Anthony
Browne destroyed, as churches were destroyed in those days, by
stripping the roof of its lead, and converting the timber into building-
material or fire-wood.* Time was left to do the rest in part ; and
as the columns and arches crumbled into ruin, the owners of the
property mended their roads with the rich carvings, and turned the
altar-tombs into paving-stones — until at last the prettiest of flower-
gardens was laid out upon the sacred ground, and the rose and the
pansy flourished in the earth which had been first, enriched by the
blood of the slaughtered Saxons, and grew richer and richer with
the bones of buried monks, generation after generation. Truly
this is a fitting place for "a fine collection of Flora's greatest
beauties." We may be held to speak harshly of such matters ; but,
as this is the first time we have been called upon so to speak, it may
be well that we say a few words as to the course we shall hold it
our duty to pursue in all cases where the historical antiquities of
our country, and especially where its ecclesiastical antiquities, are
swept away upon the principle, just, no doubt, in the main, of doin<>-
what we will with our own. The right of private property has no
other foundation whatever than the public good. If it could be
demonstrated that the public good does not consist with the right
of private property, the basis upon which it rests is irrevocably
destroyed, and the superstructure falls. But it cannot be so
demonstrated. The principle upon which the possessors of Battle
Abbey, and a hundred other similar properties in this kingdom,
retain their possessions, is a sure one, because it is the same
principle that confirms to the humblest in the land the absolute
control over the first guinea which he deposits in a Savings-Bank.
It would be no greater atrocity, perhaps not so great a one, to
reclaim for the Church in the nineteenth century the lands and
lordships of the Abbey of Battle, than it was for Henry the Eighth
to despoil the Abbey of Battle of those lands and lordships in the
sixteenth century. The possessions were wrung from their legal
proprietors under the pretext of a voluntary surrender, " with the
gibbet at their door." The same process might be repeated under
some sucli pretext of public good. The Church might be again
plundered ; the possessions of the nobility might be again confiscated ;
but it would only end in property changing hands. York and
Canterbury would have new grantees, and a new Battle Abbey
would have a new Sir Anthony Browne. But, looking at all the
circumstances under which domains and endowments which are
national, at least in their historical memories, have been for the
most part originally granted, and are in some instances still
possessed, we maintain not only that it is contrary to the spirit of
the age, and opposed to the public good, that a continual process of
demolition and desecration should go. forward, but we hold that,
under all just restrictions, the people have a distinct right to
cultivate the spirit of nationality, of taste for the beautiful, of
reverence for what is old and sacred, by a liberal admission to every
fabric which is distinctly associated, in what remains of it, with the
history of their country, and the arts and manners of their fore-
fathers. It was once contemplated to form an association to
prevent the continual destruction of our architectural antiquities.
The association has not been formed. But, formed or not, it is no
less the duty of those who address the public upon such matters to
direct opinion into a right direction ; and thus to control those who, '
in the pride of possession, disregard opinion. It is the continued
assertion of this opinion which has at length thrown open the doors
of our cathedrals, not so widely as they ought to be opened, but
still wide enough to admit those who can pay a little for the sight
of noble and inspiriting objects, which ought to be as patent as
the blue sky and green trees. It is the assertion of this opinion
which has stopped, in some degree, the new white- washing of the
rine carved-work of our churches, and the blocking up of their
windows and their arches by cumbrous monuments of the pride of
the wealthy. But there is yet much to be done. The squire of
the parish must have his high pew lowered; and the vicar must
learn to dispense with the dignity of his churchwarden's seat
blocking up the arch of his chancel. The funds of all cathedrals
must in some measure be applied, as they are now in many cases,
to the proper restoration of the beauty and grandeur of their tombs
and chantries; and not to the destruction of all harmony and
proportion, under the guidance of rash ignorance, as formerly at
Salisbury. Sacred places which have been made hiding-holes for
rubbish, like the Crypt at Canterbury, must be opened to the light.
The guardians of our ecclesiastical edifices must, above all, be
taught that the house of God was meant to be a house of beauty :
* Horace Walpok was clearly hi error in taking the hall, or refectory, for the church.

and that their vile applications of mere utility, their tasteless stalls,
their white paint, and their yellow plaster, for the purposes of
hiding the glowing colours and the rich imagery of those who knew
better than they what belonged to the devotional feeling, will no
longer be endured as the badges of a pure and reformed religion ;
for that religion is not the cold and unimaginative thing which the
puritanism of two centuries has endeavoured to degrade it into.
We shall do our best not only to direct public attention to the
antiquities of our country, and incidentally to the history of our
country in a large sense, but we shall take care, as far as in us lies —
disclaiming the slightest intention of giving offence to individuals —
to contend for a liberal throwing open of those antiquities to the
well conducted of the community, whatever be their social position ;
and to remonstrate against all wanton and ignorant destruction of
those remains which wise governments and just individuals ou^ht to
have upheld, but which to our shame have in many cases been as
recklessly destroyed as if the annals of our country had perished,
and we of Old England were a young democracy, rejoicing in our
contempt for those feelings which belong as much to the honour
and wisdom as to the poetry of civilized life.

There is an opinion, which probably may have been too hastily
taken up, that previous to the invasion of William of Normandy
there were few or no castles or towers of defence in England; and'
that to this circumstance may be attributed the eventual success
which followed his daring inroad. This opinion has had the sup-
port of many eminent antiquaries, amongst others of Sir William
Dugdale. It is scarcely necessary for us to discuss this point ; and
therefore, when we come presently to speak of Conisborough Castle,
we shall touch very slightly upon the belief of some that it was a
Saxon work. That the Conqueror erected castles and impelled his
barons to their erection in every part of the kingdom, there can be
no doubt. His energy was so great in this mode of defence and
protection, that an old Latin chronicler says that he wearied all
England with their erection. The general plan of a Norman
castle is exhibited in Fig. 346. The keep or dungeon (the tall
central building) is numbered 1; the chapel 2 ; the stable 3 ; the-
inner bailey 4 ; the outer bailey 5 ; the barbacan 6 ; the mount for
the execution of justice 7 ; the soldiers' lodgings 8. The following
clear and accurate description, by an eminent architect, in the
' Pictorial History of England,' will assist the reader's notion of a
Norman castle as conveyed by this ancient plan: — "TheAn"-lo-
Norman castle occupied a considerable space of ground, sometimes
several acres, and usually consisted of three principal divisions — the
outer or lower Ballium (Anglice, Bailey) or court, the inner or upper
court, and the keep. The outer circumference of the whole was
defended by a lofty and solid perpendicular wall strengthened at
intervals by towers, and surrounded by a ditch or moat. Flights of
steps led to the top of this rampart, which was protected by a para-
pet, embattled and pierced in different directions by loop-holes or
chinks, and ccillets, through which missiles might be discharged
without exposing the men. The ramparts of Rockingham Castle,
according to Leland, were embattled on both sides, 'so that if the
area were won, the castle-keepers might defend the walls.' The
entrance through the outer wall into the lower court was defended
by the barbacan, which in some cases was a regular outwork cover-
ing the approach to the bridge across the ditch ; but the few bar-
bacans which remain consist only of a gateway in advance of the
main gate, with which it was connected by a narrow open passage
commanded by the ramparts on both sides. Such a work remained
until lately attached to several of the gates of York, and still
remains, though of a later date, at Warwick Castle [Fio~. 3G2
exhibits the construction of a barbacan in that of Walnurate Bar
York]. The entrance archway, besides the massive ^ates Was
crossed by the portcullis, which could be instantaneously dropped
upon any emergency, and the crown of the arch was pierced with
holes, through which melted lead and pitch, and heavy missiles
could be cast upon the assailants below. A second rampart, similar
to the first, separated the lower from the upper court, in which were
placed the habitable buildings, including the keep, the relative posi-
tion of which varied with the nature of the site. It was generally
elevated upon a high artificial mound, and sometimes enclosed bv
outworks of its own. The keep bore the same relation to the rest
of the castle that the citadel bears to a fortified town. It was the
last retreat of the garrison, and contained the apartments of the
baron or commandant. In form the Anglo-Norman keeps are
varied, and not always regular ; but in those of the larger size rect-
angular plans are the most common, and of the smaller class many
are circular. The solidity of their construction is so great, that we
tmd them retaining at least their outward form in the midst of the

N 2

366 — Vignette from the Poem of the Red King.

364.-Great Seal of William Rnfus

37 0.-Slcne in New Forest, marking the site of the Oak-tree against which the Arrow of Sir Walter

Tyrrel is said to have glanced.

367.— Hunting Stag. (Royal MS. 2 B. n i )

366.— Silver Penny of William 11. iBrit- Mus. )

369— Yew-tree in Hayes Churchyard.

368.— Royal Party hunting Rabbits. (Royal MS. 2 B vii.)

3Vi,— Ibwo ol Rufus.

372. -Winchester.

92

374'. — Entrance of Rochester Castle.

375, — Rochester Castle: the Keep, with its Entrance Tower.

!\ trrlh.

373.— Interior of the Remains of the Upper Story of Rochester Castle

''Hit,.

376.— Rochester Castle:— Plan

377.— The Tower, from the Tha:ne

93

94

OLD ENGLAND.

Book II.

most dilapidated ruin. Time and violence appear to have assaulted
them in vain, and even the love of change has respected them
through successive generations."

Conisborough Castle, which is pronounced by Mr. King to be of
the earliest Saxon times "before the conversion of that people to
Christianity," is held by later antiquaries in its extent and arrange-
ment to be a fair representation of tlie Norman keeps of the smaller
class. It is situated- in the West Riding of Yorkshire, in the
wapentake of Stafforth, and, standing on a steep knowl, commands
a splendid view of the winding course of the river Don. It was
formerly entered by a drawbridge over a deep fosse. Leland speaks
of " the castle standing on a rocket of stone, and ditched. The
v. alls of it have been strong and full of towers." By the walls the
old topographer means those which surround the keep, which
Pennant in his time described as "seemingly circular, and having
the remains of four small rounders." The keep, of which a good
part is still entire, is a most remarkable building. It was originally
four stories high, and is of a circular form, being about twenty-two
feet diameter inside. The walls are fifteen feet thick, and they are
flanked by six projecting turrets, or square buttresses, running from
the top to the bottom, and expanding at the base. The external
appearance of the keep does not at first give the impression of its
really circular form (Fig. 357). The ground floor or base is
described by Pennant as a noisome dungeon of vast depth, at the
bottom of which is a draw-well. Fig. 354 exhibits the form of the
second story : the steps are numbered 1, the entrance 2, the stairs
to the third story 3, the opening to the vaulted story or dungeon
below 4. Fig. 355 shows the third story ; the stairs from the
second floor are numbered 5, the window 6, a closet which shows
that our forefathers possessed conveniences which have been thought
a modern invention 8, stairs to the fourth story 9 ; the chimney is
numbered 7, and in this and the floor above it is remarkable that
the construction of a chimney was not only perfectly well known,
'out that the form of the opening projecting over the hearth ex-
hibited a degree of elegance which might recommend itself to the
tasteless fire-place builders of eight centuries later (Fig. 353).
The fourth story is indicated in Fig. 35G ; a small but well-deco-
rated hexagon room, undoubtedly used as a chapel, formed out of
the thickness of the wall and the turret, is numbered 10, the stairs
from the third floor 11, the window 12, the chimney 13, the stairs
to the platform 14. From this platform there are entrances to
six small rooms formed in the six turrets which rise above the
parapet. Such were the conveniences of one of the smaller keeps,
possessing only a store-room or dungeon, a sort of hall of entrance,
two living-rooms, and a chapel, with six pigeon-holes where the
retainers slept or cooked their food. Of the larger keeps we shall
have particularly to speak when we come to notice the more com-
plete establishment of the feudal system under the immediate suc-
cessors of the Conqueror. At present we shall content ourselves
with a brief description of the Castle of Richmond in Yorkshire,
the grant cf whose site to its first possessor is distinctly associated
with William the Conqueror.

The charter by which the king bestowed the lands of the brave
and unfortunate Saxon Earl Edwin upon one of his own followers
is thus given by Camden : — " I William, surnamed Bastard, Kino-
of England, do give and grant to thee, my nephew, Alan Earl
Bretagne, and to thy heirs for ever, all the villages and lands which
of late belonged to Earl Edwin, in Yorkshire, with the knight's
fees and other liberties and customs, as freely and honourably as
the same Edwin held them. Dated from our siege before York."
Here then, on this noble hill, nearly encompassed by the river
Swale, amidst a landscape of wild beauty, almost of stern grandeur,
stands this Castle of Riche-mount, and some of the streets in the
little town at its feet have still their Norman names. Alan of
Bretagne quickly set to work to defend the broad lands which his
kinsman had bestowed upon him, by gathering round him a powerful
band safe from attack on this fortressed hill. The castle has been a
ruin for three centuries. Even in Leland's time it was a " mere
ruin." But yet the great keep, whose walls are ninety-nine feet in
height, and eleven in thickness, still defies the wind and the frost,
as it once set at nought the battering-ram and the scaling-ladder
(Fig: 3G1). Turrets rise above these walls from the four corners.
The keep consisted originally of three stories. The roofs of the
two upper stories have now fallen in. There are the ruins of two
smaller towers to the south-east and south-west angles of the walls
(Fig. 3G0). The view on the town side is given in Fig. 359.

The grant of lands by the Conqueror to Alan the Breton is
represented in a very curious illumination in the register of the
Honour of Richmond (Fig. 352). The prolonged resistance made
to the power of the Norman invaders in the north brought pillage

and slaughter upon the Inhabitants of the towns, and confiscation
of their lands upon the native chiefs. Villages and manors
were given away by scores in every district, to some fortunate
follower of the stranger king. It is in Domesday Book, the most
extraordinary record of the feudal times, that we can trace the
course of the spoliation of the original proprietors of the soil,
and the waste and depopulation that had preceded any condition
approaching to a tranquil settlement of the country. This book, of
which a specimen is given in Fig. 363, is unquestionably the most
remarkable monument of the Norman Conquest. No other country
possesses so complete a record of the state of society nearly eight
centuries ago, as this presents in its registration of the lands of
England. By special permission it may be seen in the Chapter-
house at AVest minster. It was formerly kept in the Exchequer
under three different locks and keys. The book familiarly so called
really consists of two volumes — one a large folio, the other a quarto,
the material of each being vellum. The date of the survey, as
indicated in one of these volumes, is 1086. Northumberland,
Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Durham were not included as
counties in the survey, though parts of Westmoreland and Cumber-
land are taken. There never was a record which more strikingly
exhibited the consequences of invasion and forcible seizure of
property. The value of all the estates was to be triply estimated ;
as that value stood in the time of Edward the Confessor, at the time
of its bestowal by the king, and at the formation of the survey. It
was found that twenty years after the Conquest the rental of the
kingdom was one-fourth less than in the time of the Confessor ; and
the return was made upon oath. The Saxon chronicler looks upon
the Domesday Book as one of the many evidences of the Conqueror's
grasping disposition ; for he tells us that not a hide or yard of land,
not an ox, cow, or hog, was omitted in the census. Later historians
have cried up the survey as a monument of the Conqueror's genius
for administration. Thierry holds it only to be the result of his
special position as chief of the conquering army. This sensible
historian has shown, in his notice of Domesday Book, how complete
was the spoliation of the Saxon proprietors within twenty years — so
complete that the Norman robbers actually record their quarrels
with each other for wdiat they call their inheritance. Describing
the document generally, he says, " The king's name was placed at
the head, with a list of his domains and revenues in the county ;
then followed the names of the chief and inferior proprietors, in the
order of their military ranks and their territorial wealth. The
Saxons who, by special favour, had been spared in the great spolia-
tion, were found only in the lowest schedule: for the small number
of that race who still continued to be free proprietors, or tenants-
in-chief of the king, as the conquerors expressed it, were such only
for slender domains. They were inscribed at the end of each chapter
under the names of thanes of the king, or by some other designation
of domestic service in the royal household. The rest of the names
of an Anglo-Saxon form, that are scattered here and there through
the roll, belong to farmers, holding by a precarious title a few frac-
tions, larger or smaller, of the domains of the Norman earls, barons,
knights, Serjeants, and bowmen."

The Saxon annalist quaintly writes of the first William, " so much
he loved the high deer as if he had been their father; he made
laws that whosoever should slay hart or hind, him man should blind.1'
The depopulation and misery occasioned by the formation of the New
Forest have been perhaps somewhat over-stated. A forest undoubtedly
existed in this district in the Saxon times. The Conqueror enlarged
its circuit and gave it a fresh name. But even William of Jumieges,
chaplain to the Conqueror, admits the devastation, in his notice of
{ the deaths of William Rufus and his brother Richard in this Forest : —
" There were many who held that the two sons of William the king
perished by the judgment of God in these woods, since for the
extension of the forest he had destroyed many towns and churches
within its circuit." It is this circumstantial statement and populai
belief which inspired Mr. William Stewart Rose's spirited little p< em

of the Red King :-

" Now fast beside the pathway stood
A ruin'd village, shagg'd with wood,

A melancholy place ;
The ruthless Conqueror cast down
(Wo worth the deed) that little town

To lengthen out his chace.

"Amongst the fragments of the church,
A raven there had found a perch, —

She flickered with her wing;
She stirr'd not, she, for voice or shout,
She moved not for that revel-rout,
But croak'd upon the king."

LE1GHT0N. UIU)5.

PAINTED WINDOW.

TWO SAXON EARLS OF MERCIA AND SEVEN NORMAN EARLS OF CHESTER.

Chat L]

OLD ENGLAND.

95

But Mr. Rose does not rest the machinery of his ballad upon
tradition alone, or the assertions of prejudiced chroniclers. Ad-
verting to the disbelief of Voltaire in the early history of the New
Forest, he points out, in his notes to the poem, what Voltaire did
not know, that ' Domesday-Book ' establishes the fact that many
thousand acres were afforested after the time of Edward the
Confessor. The testimony which Mr. Rose himself supplied from
his local knowledge is exceedingly curious. " The idea that no
vestiges of ancient buildings yet exist in the New Forest, is utterly
unfounded, though the fact is certainly little known, and almost
confined to the small circle of keepers and ancient inhabitants. In
many spots, though no ruins are visible above ground, either the
enceinte of erections is to be traced, by the elevation of the earth,
or fragments of building-materials have been discovered on turning
up the surface. The names also of those places would almost, if
other evidence were wanting, substantiate the general fact, and

even the nature of each individual edifice The total rasure

of buildings, and the scanty remains of materials under the surface,
appear at first a singular circumstance. But it is to be observed,
that the mansions, and even the churches of the Anglo-Saxons,
were built of the slightest materials, frequently of wood ; and that
of all countries a forest is the least favourable to the preservation
of ruins. As they are the property of the crown, neither the pride

nor interest of individuals is concerned in their preservation

This absence of remains of ruins above .the surface need not,
therefore, lead us to despair of further discoveries, and these are,
perhaps, yet designated by the names of places. May we not
consider the termination of ham and ton, yet annexed to some
woodlands, as evidence of the former existence of hamlets and
towns?" The historical truth, as it appears to us, may be collected
from these interesting notices of Mr. Rose's local researches. The
remains of buildings are few, and scattered over a considerable
district. The names which still exist afford the best indication that
the abodes of men were formerly more numerous. The truth lies
between the scepticism of Voltaire as to any depopulation having
taken place, and the poetical exaggeration of Pope, in his ' Windsor
Forest :'—

" The fields are ravished from industrious swains,
From men their cities, and from gods their fanes :
The levelled towns with weeds lie covered o'er ;
The hollow winds through naked temples roar."

The fact is, that from the very nature of the soil no large population
could have been here supported in days of imperfect agriculture.
The lower lands are for the most part marshy ; the higher ridges
are sterile sand. Gilpin has sensibly pointed this out in his book
on 'Forest Scenery:' — "How could William have spread such
depopulation in a country which, from the nature of it, must have
been from the first very thinly inhabited? The ancient Ytene was
undoubtedly a woody tract long before the times of William.
Voltaire's idea, therefore, of planting a forest is absurd, and is
founded on a total ignorance of the country. He took his ideas
merely from a French forest, which is artificially planted, and laid
out in vistas and alleys. It is probable that William rather opened
his chaces by cutting down wood, than that he had occasion to plant
more. Besides, though the internal strata of the soil of New Forest
are admirably adapted to produce timber, yet the surface of it is in
general poor, and could never have admitted, even if the times had
allowed, any high degree of cultivation." But, whatever view we
take of this historical question, the scenery of the New Forest is
indissolubly associated with the memory of the two first Norman
hunter-kings. There is probably no place in England which in its
general aspect appears for centuries to have undergone so little
change. The very people are unchanged. After walking in a
summer afternoon for several miles amongst thick glades, guided
only by the course of the declining sun,

" Over hill, over dale,
Thorough bush, thorough briar,"

we came, in the low ground between Beaulieu and Denny Lodge,
upon two peasants gathering a miserable crop of rowan. To our
questions as to the proper path, they gave a grin, which expressed
as much cunning as idiotcy, and pointed to a course which led us
directly to the edge of a bog. They were low of stature, and
coarse in feature. The collar of the Saxon slave was not upon
their necks, but they were the descendants of the slave, through a
long line who had been here toiling in hopeless ignorance for seven
centuries. Their mental chains have never been loosened. A mile
or two farther we encountered a tall and erect man, in a peculiar
costume, half peasant, half huntsman. He had the frank manners

of one of nature's gentlemen, and insisted upon going with us a part
of the way which we sought to Lyndhurst. His family, too, had
been settled here, time out of mind, lie was the descendant of the
Norman huntsman, who had been trusted and encouraged, whilst
the Saxon churl was feared and oppressed. There is a lesson still to
be taught by the condition of the two races in the primitive wrlds
of the New Forest.

But we are digressing from our proper theme. In these thick
coverts we find not many trees, and especially oaks, of that enor-
mous size which indicates the growth of centuries. The forest has
been neglected. Trees of every variety, with underwood in pro-
portion, have oppressed each the other's luxuriance. Now and then
a vigorous tree has shot up above its neighbours ; but the general
aspect is that of continuous wood, of very slow and stunted growth,
with occasional ranges of low wet land almost wholly devoid of
wood. There are many spots, undoubtedly of what we call pic-
turesque beauty ; but the primitive solitariness of the place is its
great charm. We are speaking, of course, of those parts which
must be visited by a pedestrian ; for the high roads necessarily lead
through the most cultivated lands, passing through a few villages
which have nothing of the air of belonging to so wild and primitive
a region. Lyndhurst, the prettiest of towns, is the capital of the
Forest. Here its courts, with their peculiar jurisdiction, are held
in a hall of no great antiquity ; but in that hall hangs the stirrup
which tradition, from time immemorial, asserts was attached to the
saddle from which William Rufus fell, when struck by the glancing
arrow of Walter Tyrrell. There is a circumstance even more re-
markably associated with tradition, to be found in the little village
of Minestead. It is recorded that the man who picked up the bodv
of the Red King was named Purkess ; that he was a charcoal-burner ;
and that he conveyed the body to Winchester in the cart which he
employed in his trade. Over the door of a little shop in that village
we saw the name of Purkess in 1843 — a veritable relic of the old
times. Mr. Rose has recorded the fact in prose and verse, of the
charcoal-burner's descendants still living in this spot, and still pos-
sessing one horse and cart, and no more : —

" A minestead churl, whose wonted trade
Was burning charcoal in the glade,

Outstretch*d amid the gorse
The monarch found ; and in his waiu
He raised, and to St. Swithin's fans
Convey 'd the bleeding corse.

And still, so runs our forest creed,
Flourish the pious woodman's seed

Even in the selfsame spot :
One- horse and cart their little store,
Like their forefather's, neither more

Nor less the children's lot.

And still, in merry Lyndhurst hall,
lied William's stirrup decks the wall ;

Who lists, the sight may 6ee ;
And a fair stone, in green Malwood,
Informs the traveller where stood

The memorable tree."

The "fair stone," which was erected by Lord Delaware in 1745, is
now put into an iron case, of supreme ugliness ; and we are infoimed
as follows: — "This stone having been much mutilated, and the
inscriptions on each of its three sides defaced, this more durable me-
morial, with the original inscriptions, was erected in tha year 1841,
by William Sturges Bourne, Warden." Another century will see
whether this boast of durability will be of any account. In the
time of Leland, there was a chapel built upon the spot. It would
be a wise act of the Crown, to whom this land belongs, to found a
school here — a better way of continuing a record than Lord Dela-
ware's stone, or Mr. Sturges Bourne's iron. The hi>tory of their
country, its constitution, its privileges— the duties and the rights of
Englishmen — things which are not taught to the children of our
labouring millions— might worthily commence to be taught on the
spot where the Norman tyrant fell, leaving successors who one by
one came to acknowledge that the people were something nut to be
despised or neglected. The following is the inscription on the ori-
ginal stone, which is represented at Fig. 370 : —

" Here stood the oak-tree on which an arrow, shot by Sir Walter Tyrrell, at a
stag, glanced, and struck King William II., surnamed Ilufus, on the
breast; of which stroke he instantly died, on the second of August, 1100.

"King William IT., surnamed Rufus, being slain, as before related, was laid
in a cart belonging to one Purkess, and drawn from henc2 to Winchedtor,
and buried in the cathedral church of that city.

" That the spot whero an event so memorable had happened might not here-
after be unknown, this stone was set up by John Lord Delaware, who
had seen the tree growing in this place, anno 1715."

.

.

■

379. -Carlisle Castle.

330.— Carlisle.

331.— St. Mary's Chapel, Hastings, and Ruins of Castle on the Cliff.

i 2.— Alnwick Castle.

3S3 — Rock of Bamlorougb, with the Castle iu its preseut State.

GG

I. Matilda, Queen of Henry I. From a Statue in the Wett

doorway of Rochester Cathedral.

3.— Mascled Armour. — Seal of Milo Kitz-Walter, Constable
of England under Henry I.

384. — Great Seal of Henry I.

390.- Cardiff ("WK as it appeared in 1*75.

17.— Silver Penny of Henry I, From Specimen in Brit. Mus.

386.— Monk Bar, York,

— >>■ '.;(f'

339.-Ruins of Reading Abbey, the Burial-place of Henry I., as they appeared in 1721.

No. 13.

97

98

OLD ENGLAND.

LBoor II.

In the Cathedral Clmrch of Winchester, which Dr. Milner terms
the "ancient mausoleum of royalty" (Fig. 372), is the tomb of
William Rufus. "It consists of English grey maible, being of
form that is dos (Vane ; and is raised about two feet above the
ground" (Fig. 371). The tomb of the Red King was violated
during the parliamentary war in the time of Charles I., and there
was found within it " the dust of the king, some pieces of cloth
embroidered with gold, a large gold ring, and a small silver chalice."
The bones had been enshrined in the time of King Stephen. What
remained of these earthy fragments in the sixteenth century had
become mixed with the bones of Canute and his queen, and of
bishops of good and evil repute. Bishop Fox caused them all to
be deposited in one of the mouldering chests which in this Cathedral
attract the gaze of the stranger, and carry him, if he be of a con-
templative turn, into some such speculations as those of Hamlet,
when he traced the noble dust of Alexander till he found it stopping
a bupfhole.

There are few prospects in England more remarkable, and, in a
certain de°ree, more magnificent, than that which is presented on the
approach to Rochester from the road to London. The highest
point on the road from Milton is Gadshill, of " men-in-buckram "
notoriety. Here the road begins gradually to descend to the valley
of the Med way ; sometimes, indeed, rising again over little eminences,
which « the hop season are more beautifully clothed than are " the
vine-covered hills and gay regions of France," but still descending,
and sometimes precipitously, to a valley whose depth we cannot see,
but which we perceive from the opposite hills has a range of several
miles. At a turn of the road we catch a glimpse of the narrow
Medway on the south ; then to the north we see a broader stream
where large dark masses, " our wooden walls," seem to sleep on the
sparkling water. At last a town presents itself right before us to
the east, with a paltry tower which they tell us is that of the
Cathedral. Close by that tower rises up a gigantic square building,
whose enormous proportions proclaim that it is no modern archi-
tectural toy. This is the great keep of Rochester Castle, called
Gundulph's Tower (Fig. 375), and there it has stood for eight
centuries, defying siege after siege, resisting even what is more
difficult to resist than fire or storm, the cupidity of modern possessors.
Rochester Castle is, like the hills around it, indestructible by man
in the regular course of his operations. It might be blown up, as
the chalk hill at Folkestone was recently shaken to its base ; but
when the ordinary workman has assailed it with his shovel and
mattock, his iron breaks upon the flinty concrete ; there is nothing
more to be got out of it by avarice — so e'en let it endure. And
worthy is this old tower to endure. A man may sit alone in the
gallery which runs round the tower, and, looking either within the
walls or without the vails, have profitable meditations. He need
not go back to the days of Julius Caesar for the origin of this castle,
as some have written, nor even to those of Egbert, King of Kent,
who " gave certain lands within the walls of Rochester Castle to
Eardulf, then Bishop of that see." It is sufficient to believe with
old Lambarde, " that Odo (the bastard brother to King William
the Conqueror), which was at the first Bishop of Bayeux in Nor-
mandy, and then afterward advanced to the office of the Chief
Justice of England, and to the honour of the Earldom of Kent, was
either the first author or the best benefactor to that which now
standeth in sight." Odo rebelled against William II., and was
driven from his stronghold and from the realm. The history of the
Castle from his time becomes more distinct : — " After this the
Castle was much amended by Gundulphus, the Bishop : who (in
consideration of a manor given to his see by King William Rufus)
bestowed threescore pounds in building that great tower which yet
standeth. And from that time this Castle continued (as I judge)
in the possession of the Prince, until King Henry the First, by the
advice of his barons, granted to William, the Archbishop of Canter-
bury, and his successors, the custody and office of Constable over
the same, with free liberty to build a tower for himself, in any part
thereof, at his pleasure. By means of which cost done upon it at
that time, the castle at Rochester was much in the eye of such as
were the authors of troubles following within the realm, so that from
time to time it had a part (almost) in every tragedy." Lambarde,
who writes this, tells us truly that in the time of the Conqueror
" many castles were raised to keep the people in awe." Such kingly
strongholds of oppression were like the " pleasant vices " of common
men ; they became " instruments to scourge " their makers. Thus,
Odo held Rochester Castle against Rufus. The barons successfully
maintained it against John. Simon de Montfort carried his vic-
torious arms against its walls, which were defended by the Constable
of Henry III. These were some of the tragedies in which Rochester

Castle had a part. But the remains of this building show that its
occupiers were not wholly engrossed by feuds and by fighting. The
splendid columns, the sculptured arches, of its chief apartments
proclaim that it was the abode of rude magnificence ; and that high
festivals, with luxurious feastings, might be well celebrated within
these massive walls (Fig. 373.) This tower, each side of which at
the base is seventy feet long, whilst its height is one hundred and
twelve feet, has attached to its east angle a smaller tower (probably
for domestics), between seventy and eighty feet in height. A parti-
tion wall runs up the middle of the larger tower; and the height was
divided into four stories. The joists and flooring boards have been
torn from the walls, but we see the holes where the timbers were in-
serted, and spacious fire-places still remain. Every floor was served
with water by a well, which was carried up through the central parti-
tion. This division of the central tower allowed magnificent dimen-
sions to the rooms, which were forty-six feet in length by twenty-one
in breadth. The height of those in the third story is thirty-two feet ;
and here are those splendid columns, with their ornamented arches,
which show us that the builders of these gloomy fortresses had notions
of princely magnificence, and a feeling for the beauty of art, which
might have done something towards softening the fierceness of their
warrior lives, and have taught them to wear their weeds of peace
with dignity and grace. Thomas Warton has described, in the true
spirit of romantic poetry, such a scene as might often have lighted
up the dark walls of Rochester Castle: —

" Stately the feast, and high the cheer :
Girt with many an armed peer,
And canopied with golden pall,
Amid Cilgarran's castle hall,
Sublime in formidable state,
And warlike splendour, Henry sate,
Prepar'd to stain the briny flood
Of Shannon's lakes with rebel blood.
Illumining the vaulted roof,
A thousand torches flamed aloof .
From massy cups with golden gleam,
Sparkled the red metheglin's stream :
To grace the gorgeous festival,
Along the lofty window' d hall
The storied tapestry was hung ;
With minstrelsy the rafters rung
Of harps, that with reflected light
From the proud gallery glitter'd bright."

Fenced round with barbacan and bastion on the land side, and
girded with high walls towards the river (Fig. 376), the legal and
baronial occupiers of Rochester Castle sat in safety, whether dis-
pensing their rude justice to trembling serfs, or quaffing the red wine
amidst their knightly retainers. Even Simon de Montfort, a man
of wondrous energy, could make little impression upon these strong
walls. But the invention of gunpowder changed the course of
human affairs. The monk who compounded sulphur, saltpetre,
and charcoal, in their just proportions, made Rochester Castle what
it is now. The last repairs which it received were in the reign of
Edward VI. ; and in that of James I. it was granted by the Crown
to Sir Anthony Welldone. His descendant Walker Welldone,
Esq., was but an instrument in the hands of mutability to work
faster than time. He, good man, " sold the timbers of it to one
Gimmit, and the stone stairs, and other squared and wrought stone
of the windows and arches, to different masons in London ; he would
likewise have sold the whole materials of the Castle to a paviour,
but on an essay made on the east side, near the postern leading to
Bully Hill, the effects of which are seen in a large chasm, the mortar
was found so hard, that the expense of separating the stones amounted
to more than their value, by which this noble pile escaped a total
demolition." (Grose.) The property finally passed into the hands
of Mr. Child, the celebrated banker: and it now belongs to the
Earl of Jersey, who married the heiress of that house.

The stone bridge at Rochester, over which we still cross the
Medway, is a very ancient structure, as old as the time of Edward
III. A great captain of that age, Sir Robert Knolles, who, " meaning
some way to make himself as well beloved of his countrymen at
home as he had been every way dreaded and feared of strangers
abroad, by great policy mastered the river of Medway, and of his
own charge made over it the goodly work which now standeth."
This is Lambarde's account of the matter. But the old Kentish
topographer has raked up two ancient documents which show us how
o-reat public works were constructed in times when men had first
begun to seethe necessity of co-operating for public good. The older
wooden bridge, which Simon de Montfort fired, and which was
wholly destroyed twenty years after by masses of ice floating down
the rapid river, was built and maintained at the cost of " divers
persons, parcels of lands, and townships, who were of duty bound to

LSiOUTi»N, Hiwi.

ROCHESTER CASTLE-INTERIOR.

ClIAP. I.J

OLD ENGLAND.

OS

bring stuff and bestow botli cost and labour in laying it." One of

the documents which Lambarde prints is the'Textus de Ecclesia

Roffensi,' which was written in Anglo-Saxon and Latin. It is

worth extracting an entry or two, to show how this curious division

of labour worked in ancient times. Such a mode of repairing a

bridge may provoke a smile; but up to this hour do we retain the

same principle of repairing our roads, in the ridiculous statute labour

of parishes and individuals. " This is the bridge work at Rochester.

Here be named the lands for the which men shall work. First the

bishop of the city taketh on that end to work the land pier, and three

vards to plank, and three plates to lay, that is from Borstall, and

from Cuckstane, and from Frensbury and Stoke. Then the second

pier belongeth to Gillingham and to Chethnm, and one yard to

plank and three plates to lay." And so runs on the record ; meting

out their work to bishop and archbishop and king, with the aid of

lands and townships. These progenitors of ours were not altogether

so ignorant of the great principles of political economy as we may

have learnt to believe. They knew that common conveniences were

to be paid for at the common cost; and that the bridge which

brought the men of Rochester and the men of Strood into intimate

connexion was for the benefit not of them alone, but of the

authorities which represented the State and the Church and the

population of the whole district; and therefore the State and the

Church and the neighbouring men of Kent, were called upon to

maintain the bridge. In these our improved times the burden of

public works is sometimes put upon the wrong shoulders.

Gundulphus the bishop, the builder or the restorer, we know not
which, of the great keep at Rochester, was the architect of the most
remarkable building of the Tower of London. Stow tells us, "I
find in a fair register-book of the acts of the Bishops of Rochester,
set down by Edmund of Hadenham, that William L, surnamed the
Conqueror, builded the Tower of London, to wit, the great white
and square tower there, about the year of Christ 1078, appointing
Gundulph, then bishop of Rochester, to be principal surveyor and
overseer of that work, who was for that time lodged in the house of
Edmere, a burgess of London." Speaking of this passage of Stow,
the editor of * London ' says, " AVe see the busy bishop (it was he
who built the great keep at Rochester) coming daily from his
lodgings at the honest burgess's to erect something stronger and
mightier than the fortresses of the Saxons. What he found in ruins,
and what he made ruinous, who can tell ? There might have been
walls and bulwarks thrown down by the ebbing and flowing of the
tide. There might have been, dilapidated or entire, some citadel
more ancient than the defences of the people the Normans conquered,
belonging to the age when the great lords of the world left every-
where some marks upon the earth's surface of their pride and their
power. That Gundulph did not create this fortress is tolerably
clear. What he built, and what he destroyed, must still, to a certain
extent, be a matter of conjecture." And this is precisely the case
with the great tower at Rochester. The keep at Rochester and the
White Tower at London have a remarkable resemblance in their
external appearances (Fig. 377). But we have no absolute certainty
that either was the work of the skilful Bishop, who, with that
practical mastery of science and art which so honourably dis-
tinguished many of the ecclesiastics of his age, was set by his
sovereign at both places to some great business of construction or
repair. We must be content to leave the matter in the keeping of
those who can pronounce authoritatively where records and traditions
fail, taking honest Lambarde for our guide, who says, " Seeing that
by the injury of the ages between the monuments of the first
beginning of this place, and of innumerable such, others be not come
to our hands, I had rather in such cases use honest silence than rash
speech."

The ruined walls of the Castle of Hastings, and the remains of the
pretty chapel within those walls, are familiar objects to the visitors of
the most beautiful of our watering-places. The situation of this Castle
is singularly noble. It was here, according to Eadmer, that almost all
the bishops and nobles of England were assembled in the year 1090,
to pay personal homage to King William II. before his departure
for Normandy. Grose has given a pretty accurate description of
this castle, which we abridge with slight alteration. What remains
of the castle approaches nearest in shape to two sides of an oblique
spherical triangle, having the points rounded off. The base, or
south side next the sea, completing the triangle, is formed by a
perpendicular craggy cliff about four hundred feet in length, upon
which are no vestiges of walls or other fortification. The east side
is made by a plain wall measuring nearly three hundred feet, without
tower or defence of any kind. The adjoining side, which faces the
north-west, is about four hundred feet long. The area included is
about an acre and one-fifth. The walls, nowhere entire, are about

eight feet thick. The gateway, now demoli>hed, was on the north
side near the northernmost angle. Not far from it, to tlie west, are
the remains of a small tower enclosing a circular flight of stairs ;
and still farther west wan',, a sally-port and the ruins of another
tower. On the east side, at the distance of about one hundred feet,
ran a ditch, one hundred feet in breadth at the top, and sixty feet
deep ; but both the ditch, and the interval between it and the wall,
seem to have gradually narrowed as they approached the gate,
under which they terminated. On the north-west side there was
another ditch of the same breadth, commencing at the cliff opposite
to the westernmost angle, and bearing away almost due north, leaving
a level intermediate space, which, opposite to the sally-port, was
one hundred and eighty feet in breadth (Fig. 381).

The Castle of Carlisle was founded by William Rufus. He
was the restorer of the city, after it had remained for two centuries
in ruins through the Danish ravages. The Red King was a real
benefactor to the people at this northern extremity of his kingdom.
He first placed here a colony of Flemings, an industrious and skilful
race, and then encouraged an immigration of husbandmen from the
south, to instruct the poor and ignorant inhabitants in the arts of
agriculture. We must not consider that these Norman kings were
all tyrants. The historical interest of Carlisle belongs to a latei
period, and we shall return to it. So does the Castle of Alnwick
(Fig. 382). But we here introduce the noble seat of the Percies,
for it was a place of strength soon after the Norman Conquest. In
the reign of Rufus it was besieged by Malcolm the Third, of Scot-
land, who here lost his life, as did his son Prince Edward. Before
the Norman Conquest the castle and barony of Alnwick belonged
to Gilbert Tyson, who was slain fighting against the invader, by
the side of his Saxon King. The Conqueror gave the granddaughter
of Gilbert in marriage to Ivo de Vescy, one of his Norman fol-
lowers ; and the Lords de Vescy enjoyed the fair possessions down
to the time of Edward I. The Castle of Bamborough, in North-
umberland, carries us back into a remoter antiquity. It was
the palace, according to the monkish historians, of the kings of
Northumberland, and built by king Ida, who began his reign about
559. Roger Hoveden, who wrote in 1192, describes it, under th«
name of Bebba, as "a very strong city." Rufus blockaded the
castle in 1085, when it was in the possession of Robert de Mowbray,
earl of Northumberland. The keep of Bamborough is very similar
in its appearance to the keeps of the Tower of London, of Roches-
ter, and of Dover. It is built of remarkably small stones ; the
walls are eleven feet thick on one side, and nine feet on three sides.
This castle, situated upon an almost perpendicular rock, close to
the sea, which rises about one hundred and fifty feet above low-
water mark, had originally no interior appliances of luxury or even
of comfort. Grose says, " Here were no chimneys. The only
fire-place in it was a grate in the middle of a large room, supposed
to have been the guard-room, where some stones in the middle of
the floor are burned red. The floor was all of stone, supported by
arches. This room had a window in it, near the top, three feet
square, possibly intended to let out the smoke : all the other rooms
were lighted only by slits or chinks in the wall, six inches broad,
except in the gables of the roof, each of which had a window one
foot broad." One of the most remarkable objects in this ancient
castle is a draw-well, which was discovered about seventy years
ago, upon clearing out the sand and rubbish of a vaulted cellar or
dungeon. It is a hundred and forty-five feet deep, and is cut
through the solid basaltic rock into the sandstone below. When
we look at the history of this castle, from the time when it was
assaulted by Penda, the Pagan king cf the Mercians, its plunder
by the Danes, its siege by Rufus, itf assault by the Yorkists in
1463, and so onward through seven centuries of civil strife, it is
consoling to reflect upon the uses to which this stronghold is now
applied. It was bought with the property attached to it by Nathaniel
Lord Crewe, Bishop of Durham, and bequeathed by him to chari-
table purposes in 1720. The old fortress has now been completely-
repaired. Its gloomy rooms, through whose loop-holes the sun
could scarcely penetrate, have been converted into schools. Boys
are here daily taught, and twenty poor girls are lodged, clothed,
and educated till fit for service. The towers, whence the warder
once looked out in constant watchfulness against an enemy's ap-
proach, are now changed into signal-stations, to warn the sailor
against that dangerous cluster of rocks called the Fern Islands ;
and signals are also arranged for announcing when a vessel is in
distress to the fishermen of Holy Island. Life-boats are here kept,
and shelter is offered for any reasonable period to such as may-
be shipwrecked on this dreary coast. The estates thus devoted to
purposes of charity now yield a magnificent income of more than
eight thousand a year. Not onlv are the poor taught, but the sick

O 2

391.— Great Seal of Stephen.

392. — Stephen. Enlarged from a unique Silver Coin in the
Collection of Sir Henry hllis.

394. — Silver Penny of Stephen.
From Specimen in Brit. II us.

3D3.— Arms of Stephen.

397.— Oxford Castle, as it appeared iu the Fifteenth Century.

-J

396.— Tower of Oxford Cast'e.

395.— Rougemont Castle.

100

- - *.

399.— .Norwich Custlc.

398.— South-west View of Norwich Castle.

401.— TeguUted Armour.
Seal of Richard, Constable of Chester in the time of Stephen.

403.— Standard.

_i

404.— Standard.

400.— Winchester.

402.— Geoffrey Plantagenet. (.Le Bel.) L>errick'a Collect., 6723

101

102

OLD ENGLAND.

Book II.

are relieved in this hospitable fortress. In the infirmary, to which
part of the building is applied, the wants of a thousand persons are
annually administered to. Much is still left out of these large funds ;
and the residue is devoted to the augmentation of small benefices,
to the building: and enlarging of churches, to the foundation and
support of schools, and to exhibitions for young men going to the
Universities. When William Rufus besieged tliis rock of Bam-
borough, Robert de Mowbray had a steward within the walls, who
would have defended it to the death, had not the king brought out
the earl his master, wlio was a prisoner, with a threat that his eyes
should be put out unless the castle surrendered. This was a faithful
steward. Lord Crewe had an equally faithful steward, after a dif-
ferent fashion, in Dr. Sharpe, Archdeacon of Northumberland, who
devised the various means of best applying this noble bequest, and
resided on this stormy rock to see that those means were properly
administered.

In the fine west doorway of Rochester Cathedral is a statue
which is held to represent Matilda, queen of Henry I. (Fig. 385).
The marriage of the son of the Norman Conqueror with the niece
of Edgar Atheling was a politic measure, which revived the old
Saxon feeling in the conquered and oppressed, and made them
think that days of equality were in store for them, even under the
new race. Matilda the Good was worthy to be a descendant of
Alfred. She probably would have been more happy in the cloister
to which she had fled for safety during the terrors of the Norman
licentiousness, than with her ambitious, daring, profligate, but accom-
plished husband. Her influence over him did something, no doubt,
for ameliorating the condition of her native land. She was a ci vilizer :
she built bridges; she cultivated music. But the promise which
Henry had made when he seized the crown, that the old Saxon laws
should be restored, was wholly broken as soon as he had fairly
grasped the sword of authority. The collection entitled ' The
Laws of King Henry I.' is a " compilation of ancient Saxon laws
by some private person, and not a publication by authority of the
state." The writer of this adds, " The general clamour in England
for the Saxon laws of the Confessor, under the three Norman
kings, makes it probable that this compilation was made by some
private person at the time when the restoration of these laws was
called for by, and repeatedly promised to, the nation." (' Ancient
Laws and Institutes of England,' published by the Record Com-
mission.) These laws of Edward the Confessor were founded
upon older laws, that go back through the times of Canute, and
Ethelred, and Edgar, and Athelstan, and Alfred, prescribing many
things which are difficult to understand in our present state of
society, but upholding a spirit of justice in mercy which later ages
have, it is to be feared, not so diligently maintained. The laws of
king Ethelred, for example, might furnish a text to be written up
in every police court: "And ever, as any one shall be more
powerful here in the eyes of the world, or through dignities higher
in degree, so shall he the more deeply make 'hot' (amends, com-
pensation) for sins, and pay for every misdeed the more dearly ;
because the strong and the weak are not alike, and cannot raise a
like burthen." Again here is a noble motto for a judgment-seat:
" Let every deed be carefully distinguished, and doom ever be
guided justly according to the deed, and be modified according to
its degree, before God and before the world ; and let mercy be
shown for dread of God, and kindness be willingly shown, and those
be somewhat protected who need it ; because we all need that our
Lord oft and frequently grant his mercy to us." This was the
spirit of Christianity filling lawgivers with right principles ;
although some of the institutions of society, such as slavery, were
a violation of those principles. For all free men the old Saxon
laws were dst in their objects, and impartial in their administration.
It is easy to understand how they could not exist in connection
with the capricious despotism of the first Norman kings, and the
turbulence of their grasping retainers. Fortunate was it for the
country when a prince arose of such decided character as Henry I. ;
for he crushed the lesser oppressors, whose evil doings were more con-
stant and universal. It mattered little to the welfare of the country
that his unhappy brother Robert was shut up for years in Cardiff
Castle, if the king visited his own purveyors with terrible punish-
ments when they ground the people by unjust exactions. In Cardiff
Castle (Fig. 390) a dark vaulted room beneath the level of the ground
is shown as the place where Robert of Normandy was confined by his
brother for twenty-six years. The tradition rests upon no historical
foundation whatever, nor, indeed, upon any probability. The gallant
but heedless prince, according to William of Malmesbury and other
chroniclers, was indeed a prisoner in Cardiff Castle, but surrounded
with luxury and magnificence, and provided with minstrels and jesters

to make his life pass away as a gay dream. Matthew Paris tells a
curious story, which appears very characteristic of the proud and tri-
fling mind of him whom Beauclerk had jostled out of a throne. '• It
happened on a feast day, that king Henry trying on a scarlet robe,
the hood of which being too strait, in essaying to put it on he
tore one of the stitches, whereupon he desired one of his attendants
to carry it to his brother, whose head was smaller; it always
having been his custom whenever he had a new robe to send one
cut off from the same cloth to his brother with a polite message.
This garment being delivered to Robert, in putting it on he felt
the fraction where the stitch had been broken, and through the
negligence of the tailor not mended. On asking how that place
came torn, he was told that it was done by his brother, and the
whole story was related to him : whereupon, falling into a violent
passion, he thus exclaimed: 'Alas! alas! I have lived too long!
Behold my younger brother, a lazy clerk, who has supplanted me
in my kingdom, imprisoned and blinded me ! I who have been
famous in arms! And, now, not content with these injuries, he
insults me as if I were a beggar, sending me his cast-off clothes as
for an alms !' From that time he refused to take any nourishment,
and, miserably weeping and lamenting, starved himself to death.
He was buried in Gloucester Cathedral, where his image, as big
as the life, carved in Irish oak and painted, is yet shown." Death
levelled these distinctions in the same year. If Robert died of
mortification about a cast-off robe, Henry perished more ignobly
of a full meal of lampreys. Robert's effigy of heart of oak was
carefully repaired by a stranger two centuries ago. The monument
of Henry in Reading Abbey, which he founded, perished lo:ig since,
and scarcely a stone is now left standing of this princely building, to
tell the tale of his pious munificence (Fig. 389).

The successor of Henry Beauclerk was also an usurper. The
rival pretensions of Stephen of Blois and the Empress Matilda filled
the land with bloodshed and terror for nineteen years. From the
north to the south, from the Barbacans of York (Fig. 386) to the
Palaces of Winchester (Fig. 400), the country was harried by king
and baron, by empress and knight. A single burst of patriotism
carried the English to fight with one accord at Northallerton, under
the car-borne standard of Stephen (Fig. 403). But during the
greater part of this period almost every baron's castle had to sustain
a siege on one side or the other; and, what was worse, the lands
around these strongholds were uniformly wasted by the rapacious
garrison, or their plundering assailants. Stephen had given to the
nobles the fatal power of fortifying their castles ; and it is affirmed
that towards the latter end of his reign these "nests of devils and
dens of thieves," as Matthew Paris styles them, amounted to the
number of eleven hundred and fifteen. A contemporary annalist of
the deeds of King Stephen thus describes the miseries of the people
during this desolating contest : — " Many abandoned their country ;
others, forsaking their houses, built wretched huts in churchyards,
hoping for protection from the sacredness of the place. Whole
families, after sustaining life as long as they could byr eating herbs,
roots, dogs, and horses, perished at last with hunger; and you
might see many pleasant villages without one inhabitant of either
sex." There is scarcely a castle of the period that is not associated
with some memory of this war of ambition. The Saxon Chronicler
says, " In this king's time all was dissension, and evil, and rapine.
The great men soon rose against him. They had sworn oaths, but
maintained no truth. They built castles which they held out against
him." It was thus that Hugh Bigod, who had sworn that Henry
had appointed Stephen his successor, was the first to hold out against
the king in the Castle of Norwich, which his ancestor had built.
Norwich was a regular fortress, with a wall and ditch, an outer, a
middle, and an inner court, and a keep. The bridge over one of
the ditches and the keep still remain. The keep had long since
gone through the customary process of being turned into a jail, and
the jail being removed it is now gutted and roofless. This keep is
a parallelogram, a hundred and ten feet in length by about ninety-
three in breadth. The walls are in some places thirteen feet thick,
and the tower is seventy feet in height. It was not sufficient for
the people in authority in the last century to tear this fine historical
monument to pieces, by their fittings up and their pullings down,
but they have stuck on their county gaol at one end — a miserable
modern thing called Gothic — paltry in its dimensions, and incon-
gruous in its style (Figs. 398, 399). The same process has been
resorted to at Oxford Castle. It was built by Robert de Oilies, a
Norman who came over with the Conqueror. Not even the romance
connected with its history could save Oxford Castle from desecration.
It was a little county prison a century ago, and it is a great county
prison in our own day. It is something, indeed, to see the strong-
holds of lawless oppressors becoming monuments of the power of the

Li-lU fci 1 u„n oum,

ELIZABETHAN SIDEBOARD OR COURT CUPBOARD

IN WARWICK CASTLE.

Chap. I.]

OLD ENGLAND.

103

Law. We shall speak of more of these presently. But, nevertheless,
in a seat of learning, in a place consecrated to ancient recollections,
we would gladly have had other associations than chains and gibbets,
with the venerable walls from which Matilda escaped through be-
leaguering hosts in a night of frost and snow, and, crossing the
frozen Thames, wandered in darkness for many a mile, till she
reached a place of safety. Holinshed tells the story with the sim-
plicity of the elder chroniclers: — "It was a very hard winter that
year ; the Thames and other rivers thereabouts were frozen, so that
both man and horse might safely pass over upon the ice : the fields
were also covered with a thick and deep snow. Hereupon, taking
occasion, she clad herself and all her company in white apparel, that
afar off they might not be discerned from the snow ; and so, by
negligence of the watch, that kept ward but slenderly, by reason of
the exceeding cold weather, she and her partakers secretly in the
night issued out of the town, and passing over the Thames, came to
Wallingford, where she was received into the castle by those that
had the same in keeping to her use: of whom Brian, the son to the
Earl of Gloucester, was the chief." The " gaping chinks and
aged countenance " of Rougemont Castle at Exeter (Fig. 395)
are something more in character with the old times than the feeble
patchwork of antiquarianism, the parapets and pepper-boxes of our
modern castle prisons, pertly bristling up by the sides of these old
donjons.

The personal history of Henry II., one of the greatest kings that
ever sat upon the English throne, belongs more strikingly to the
ecclesiastical than to the civil annals of those times. The story of
his wonderful contest with Becket may be best referred to in con-
nection with the scene of Becket's martyrdom. That story was
every where made familiar to the people by legend and painting (Fig.
411). The romance of Henry's personal history, in connection
with Rosamond Clifford, was long associated with the old towers of
Woodstock. These are no more; but what they were is shown in
Figs. 413, 414.

It is a rare consolation for the lover of his country's monuments,
to turn from castles made into prisons, and abbeys into stables, to
such a glorious relic of ' Old England ' as Warwick Castle. Who
can forget the first sight of that beautiful pile, little touched by
time, not vulgarized by ignorance? (Fig 417). As he enters the
portal through which Gaveston was led to execution, and the
king-maker marched in and out to uphold a Yorkist or a Lancastrian
pretender to the crown, he feels that he is treading upon grouud
almost hallowed by its associations (Fig. 415). Caesar's Tower —
that is but a name ! Guy's Tower — that belongs to poetry, and is
therefore a reality ! (Fig. 416). Old Dugdale treated Guy and
his legend as a true thing. " Of his particular adventures, lest what
I say should be suspected for fabulous, I will only instance that
combat betwixt him and the Danish champion, Colebrand, whom
60ine (to magnify our noble Guy the more) report to have been a
giant. The story whereof, however it may be thought fictitious
by some, forasmuch as there be those that make a question whether
there was ever really such a man, or, if so, whether all be not a dream
which is reported of him, in regard that the monks have sounded
out his praises so hyperbolically ; yet those that are more consi-
derate will neither doubt the one nor the other, inasmuch as it
hath been so usual with our ancient historians, for the encourage-
ment of after-ages unto bold attempts, to set forth the exploits of
worthy men with the highest encomiums imaginable ; and therefore,
should we for that cause be so conceited as to explode it, all history
of those times might as well be vilified." We shall have to return
to the fair castle of Warwick : so we leave it, at present, under the
influence of Guy and his legends (Fig. 418).

In glancing generally over the subject of the present state of the
ancient Castles of England, a striking commentary is afforded to us
upon the progress that England has made since they studded the
land over with their stately but terrible walls, and gateways, and
towers. Look, for instance (to refer only to structures not already
mentioned), at Farnham Castle, in Surrey (Fig. 426), built by
Henry of Blois, brother of King Stephen, and forming, no doubt,
one of the eleven hundred castles said to have been erected in the reign
of that monarch. Eleven hundred castles built in sixteen years !
What a scene of violence and strife does not the bare mention of
such a fact open to the imagination ! It is to that scene Farnham
Castle essentially belongs ; and if we now gaze upon it, as it is,
most strange in all respects appears the contrast between the pre-
sent and the past associations. The lofty keep stands in a garden
forming a picturesque and noble ornamental ruin in the palatial
grounds of the Bishops of Winchester, but that is its only value

to the present possessors ; it looks down upon the principal street
of the place, which probably first grew up into importance under
its protection, but it is only now to behold a population exhibiting
in a thousand ways their enjoyment of the services of an infinitely
more powerful defender — the Law. In numerous other cases our
castles have become direct adjuncts to the very power that has thus
superseded them. York, Lancaster, and Lincoln Castles are now
mere gaols for the confinement, or courts for the trial of prisoners ;
and that amazing piece of workmanship, which attests to this day
the strength of the first of these structures, Clifford's Tower (Fig.
423), attributed to the Conqueror, whilst the mount on which it
stands is supposed to have been raised by Roman hands, now frowns
in unregarded magnificence over the throng of judges, barristers,
and witnesses, of debtors and criminals, who pass to and fro through
the modern gateway at its feet. Then, again, Newark Castle (Fig.
425), erected by Bishop Alexander, the well-known castle-building
prelate, who seems indeed to have thought he had a mission that
way, and who certainly exhibited no lack of zeal in fulfilling it ;
Newark (*. e., New- Work, hence the name of the town), a rare ex-
ample for the time of any departure from the principle of consi-
dering a castle merely as a stronghold, rather than as a place ot
residence also; Newark, with its high historical and military repu-
tation, twice unsuccessfully besieged by the Parliamentarians during
the Civil War, and only delivered up, not taken, at last in conse-
quence of Charles's own directions when he had given himself up
to the Scots — under what circumstances do we behold the ruins of
this structure ? Why, as if in mockery of that reputation, wooden
bowls now roll noiselessly but harmlessly about the close-shaven
green, in one part of the castle area, where cannon-balls once
came thick and fast, dealing destruction and death on all sides ;
whilst in another, peaceful men and women now congregate in the
"commodious market." Pontefract, or Pomfret Castle (Fig.
429), of still higher historical interest, exhibits a change and a
moral no less remarkable. The rocky foundation upon which the
castle was raised, at an enormous expenditure of time, money, and
labour, is now a quarry of filtering-stones, which are, we are told,
in great request all over the kingdom ; the place, for the mainte-
nance of which the neighbourhood has been so often of yore laid
under contribution, now in some measure repays those old exac-
tions from the liquorice-grounds and market-gardens that occupy
its site. The liquorice-grounds, we may observe by the way, form
quite a distinctive feature of the country immediately surrounding
Pontefract, that quietest, and cleanest, and widest-streeted of pro-
vincial towns, which, within some fourteen miles of the manufac-
turing Babel, Leeds, is so little like Leeds, that one might fire a
cannon-ball down its main street at noon-day with but very small
danger of mischief. We must dwell a little on the history of
Pomfret Castle. Royal favour is generally attended with substan-
tial tokens of its existence; but of all English sovereigns who have
had at once the will and the power to distinguish their friends in
this way, commend us to the Conqueror. The builder of Pomfret
Castle was Ilbert de Lacy, who received from William one hundred
and fifty manors in the west of Yorkshire, ten in Nottinghamshire,
and four in Lincolnshire. Pontefract was among the first, thouo-h
not it seems, previously known by that name, which is said to have
been conferred on it by De Lacy from its resemblance to a place
in Normandy, where he was born : a pleasant touch of sentiment
in connection with one of those formidable mailed barons who
struck down at once England's king and liberties on the fatal field
of Hastings. The area enclosed by the castle-walls was about
seven acres, the walls being defended by the same number of towers.
It had of course its deep moat, barbacan, and drawbridge, and its
great gateways of entrance. Leland says of the main structure,
" Of the Castle of Pontefract, of some called Snorre Castle it con-
tained eight round towers, of the which the dungeon cast into six
roundelles, three big and three small, is very fair." We should be
sorry to wish that the excellent antiquarian had had an apportunity
of a closer acquaintance with the "fair" dungeon, but assuredly
if he had, he would have chosen a somewhat different epithet, in
spite of its external beauty. The dungeons of Pontefract Castle
have excited no less fearful interest from their intrinsic character,
than from the prisoners who have wept or raved in them to the
senseless walls. In the early part of the fourteenth century, Thomas,
Earl of Lancaster, uncle of IMward II., married Alice, daughter of
Henry de Lacy, and thus became the lord of Pontefract. Among
the barons then opposed to the weak and disgraceful government
of Edward II. the Earl of Lancaster was conspicuous ; but in one
of those reverses of fortune which his party experienced, he, with
many other nobles and knights, fell into the hands of the royalists,
was brought by them to his own Castle of Pontefract, then in their

405.— Great Seal of Henry 1.

408.— Silver Penny of Henry II. From a
specimen in Brit. Mus.

; 409.— Arms of Henry II.

410— Planta Genista.

413.— Woodstock.

4"6— Henry II. Drawn from the Tomb at Fontevraud.

i 1 1.— The Martyrdom of Thomas a Becket. From an ancient painting in
Chapel of the Holy Cross, Stratford.

414.— Woodstock, as it appeared before 1714,

412. — Eleanor, Queen of Henry II,
From the Tomb at Fontevraud.

W 407.— Effigy of Henry II.
From the tomb at Fontevraud

104

410. — Entrance tu Warwick Castle.

f i

3K1 • ••"■'
416.— Warwick Castle ; Guy's Tower.

410.— Ancient Statue of Guy, at Guy's CllfJ.

i \ . S

lite ; '

it. i

■;Li/
1

417.— Warwick Castle, from tbe Island.

420— Interior of a Room in Warkworth Castle.

, 419.— Warkworth Castle.

421.— Ludlow Castle.

No. 14.

105

106

OLD ENGLAND.

[Book II.

possession, and there, without even a hearing, beheaded, whilst the
other barons were hung. As the owner of the castle and the
broad lands sweeping so far away on all sides around it lay helple?s
in his own dungeons, in the brief interval that elapsed between his
capture and horrible death, what thoughts may not, we might almost
say must not, have crowded into the brain of the unhappy noble-
man ! Taught, perhaps, when too late, the wisdom of humanity and
love, we may imagine him giving utterance to some such thoughts
as those expressed by the poet : —

" And this place our forefathers made for man !
This is the process of our love and wisdom
To each poor brother who offends against us — •
Most innocent, perhaps — and what if guilty?
Is this the only cure?"

Or as he reflected with unutterable anguish on the beauty of the
scene without — that scene on which he had so often gazed with heed-
less eyes, but that, now that he was to behold it but once more,
seemed to his imagination bathed in loveliness and romance — could
lie fail to arrive in some degree at the poet's conclusion? —

" With other ministrations; thou, 0 Nature,
Healest thy wandering and distempered child ;
Thou poorest on him thy soft influences,
Thy sunny hues, fair forms, and breathing sweets,
Thy melodies of woods, and winds, and waters,
Till he relent, and can no more endure
To be a jarring and a dissonant thing
Amid this general dance and minstrelsy ,
But, bursting into tears, wins back his way,
His angry spirit healed and harmonised
By the benignant touch of love and beauty."

Alas, that the truths here so exquisitely conveyed should be still
unregarded ! The dungeons of a former clay have changed their
name, and improved in their superficial characteristics, it is true ;
but only to fit them for still more extensive application. When
"such pure and natural outlets" of a man's nature are

" shrivelled up
By ignorance and parching poverty,

and

His energies roll back upon his heart,

And stagnate and corrupt, till, changed to poison,

They break out on him, like a loathsome plague-spot,

we still

call in our pampered mountebanks ;
And theirs is their best cure! Uncomforted
And friendless solitude, groaning and tears."

But the dungeons of Pontefract Castle whisper of a still more fearful
story than the Earl of Lancaster's. As we walk about among the
ruins, and investigate the process of decay, since Gough, the
editor of Camden, describes in the last century the remains of the
keep as consisting only of the " lower story, with horrible dungeons
and winding staircases;" we look with especial interest for the
" narrow damp chamber formed in the thickness of the wall,
with two small windows next the court," where tradition says the
fate of Richard II. was consummated, either by direct violence, as
the popular story has it, through the agency of Sir Piers Exton
and his band of assassins, some of whom perished in the struggle,
or by starvation, as other writers have related the matter. In the
short reign of the third Richard, another batch of eminent men
underwent the sharp agony of the axe at Pontefract Castle, namely,
Woodville, Rivers, Grey, Vaughan, and Hawse. The edifice was
fii ally dismantled and the materials sold, after the civil war, during
which it had resisted the parliamentary forces with extraordinary
bravery and determination, even subsequent to the death of
Charles I.

This said civil war was to our old castles generally, what the
Reformation was to our grand and beautiful ecclesiastical remains ;
with this difference, that the injuries in the one case were necessarily
of a much severer character than in the other. Hence we find, in
looking back to the history of a large portion of our castles, that
they were comparatively in good preservation up to the sixteenth
century, and in ruin beyond that time. Goodrich Castle, Here-
fordshire (Fig. 422), was one of these, the owners of which could
boast that the structure dated from a period anterior to the Con-
quest ; and during the civil war it was defended with a courage
worthy of its reputation. It is recorded of Goodrich Castle that
it held out longer than any other English fortress for the king,
with the single exception pf Pendennis Castle, in Cornwall. If one
could grieve at a matter that necessarily involves so many points
for congratulation, we might lament to see how few and compara-
tively unimportant are the remains of such a castle, interesting to
us for its age, and still more by the memory of one at least of its
early inhabitants, the brave Talbot of history, and of Shakspere's

Henry the Sixth (First Part). It appears from the records of
Goodrich Castle, that when a great man in the middle ages erected
a fortress, it was not always the expensive affair we are accustomed
to consider it. Goodrich, in the fourteenth century, came into the
possession of Elizabeth, daughter of John Lord Comyn, of
Badenagh, in Scotland. The notorious Hugh le Despencer and
his son, it appears, had taken a particular fancy for portions of this
lady's property, and the way they set about the accomplishment
of their desires speaks volumes as to the state of society at the
period. The lady Elizabeth was suddenly seized, carried into
another part of the country, confined for upwards of a year, and
finally compelled, from " fear of death," as it is stated in a manu-
script eiied by Dugdale in his 'Baronage,' to cede to the son her
castle of Goodrich, and to the father her manor of Painswick.
Certainly, as with these feudal oppressors even-handed justice did
often commend the poisoned chalice to their own lips, there is
something more than accident in such remarkable conjunctions as
the fate of the Earl of Lancaster before mentioned and the character
of the dungeons in his castle — in the wrongs done to this lady and
the character of the dungeons still traceable among the ruins of
her castle. The keep, of Saxon, or very early Norman architecture,
originally consisted of three small rooms, one above another; at
the bottom was a dungeon, which had not even a single loop-hole
for light or air, but was connected by a narrow passage with
another and smaller dungeon, situated beneath the platform of the
entrance-steps of the exterior, which had a very small opening for
the admission of air ; and thus alone was life preserved even for a
time in the inner dungeon. It is a relief to escape from such dreadful
recollections of our old castles, to the gay and brilliant scenes that
occasionally made them the centres of enjoyment to assembled
thousands, when, for instance, the tournament brought fiom all parts
of the country the young and old, rich and poor, the knightly and
the would-be knightly, to see lances broken or to break them, to
conquer or to be conquered. There were occasions, too, when the ex-
citing and brilliant sports of the tournament were enhanced by pecu-
liar circumstances, calculated in the highest degree to attract, not only
the chivalry of Old England, but of Europe, into the lists. One of the
most grandly situated of castles is that of Peveril of the Peak
(Fig. 424), built by a natural son of the Conqueror, whose name it
bears. This was some centuries afterwards in the possession of
William Peveril, a valiant knight, who had two daughters, one of
whom, Mellet, having privily resolved to marry none but a knight
who should distinguish himself for his warlike prowess, her father,
sympathizing with her feelings, determined to invite the noble
youth of England generally to compete for such a prize in a grand
tournament. The castle of Whittington, in the county of Salop,
was also to reward the victor by way of a fitting dowry for the
bride. We may judge of the hosts who would assemble at such an
invitation ; and even royal blood was among them, in the person of
the Scottish King's son. Worthy of the day, no doubt, were the
feats performed. Among the combatants, one knight with a silver
shield and a peacock for his crest speedily distinguished himself.
The best and bravest in vain endeavoured to arrest his successful
career. The Scottish prince was overthrown ; so was a baron of
Burgoyne. Their conqueror was adjudged the prize. Guarine de
Meez, a branch of the house of Lorraine, and an ancestor of the
lord Fitzwarren, thus wooed and won an English bride, at Peveril's
Place in the Peak.

There are two castles that belong to the present period, inasmuch
as that their erection chiefly took place in it ; we allude to Caris-
brook, in the Isle of Wight, and Kenilworth : but as in both cases
the most essential points of their subsequent history refer to later
periods, we shall confine our present notices to the erection.
Carisbrook (Fig. 427) stands at a short distance from the town of
Newport, and near the central point of the isle, of which, from the
days of the Saxons and of the isle's independent sovereignty down
to a comparatively recent period, it has been the chief defence.
The keep, and the great artificial mound on which it stands, are
supposed to have been erected so early as the sixth century. Five
centuries later, the Norman possessor, Fitz-Osbome, desiring to
enlarge his fortress, built additional works, covering together a
square space of about an acre and a half, with rounded angles, the
whole surrounded by a fosse or ditch. All lands in the isle were
then held of the castle, or in other words, of the honour of
Carisbrook ; and on the condition of serving and defending it at all
times from enemies. Of this early building, which still formed only
the nucleus of the very extensive and magnificent fortress which
ultimately was raised on the spot, the chief remains are the western
side of the castle, forming an almost regular parallelogram, with
rounded corners; and the keep, on the north, ascended by a flight

Chap. l.J

OLD ENGLAND.

107

of seventy-two steps. The lowest story only is preserved. In the
centre of the keep there is a well 300 feet deep, telling-, by its very
formation under such difficult circumstances, the importance of
its existence. Kenilwortji (Fig. 430) seems to have derived its
name and its earliest castle from the fortress mentioned by
Duo-dale as standing, even in the Saxon times, upon a place called
Horn or Holme Hill, and which, it is supposed, was built by one
of the Saxon kings of Mereia, named Kenulph, and his son Kenelm.
"Worth, in the Saxon, means mansion or dwelling-place ; conse-
quently the formation of the word Kenilworth is tolerably clear.
But other writers consider this date as much too modern : to carry
hack the history of Kenil worth only to a Saxon king is not sufficient ;
we must go to the Britons at once, and their great sovereign of
romance, and perhaps reality — Arthur,

" That here, with royal court, abode did make."

Whatever the beginning of this castle, its end seems certain enough :
Du^dale says it was demolished in the wars between King Edmund
and Canute the Dane. About a century later, or in the reign of
Henry the First, the present castle was commenced by Geoffrey de
Clinton, who is stated " to have been of very mean parentage, and
merely raised from the dust by the favour of the said King Henry,
from whose hands he received large possessions and no small honour,
being-made both Lord Chamberlain and Treasurer to the said King,
and afterwards Justice of England ; which great advancements do
argue that he was a man of extraordinary parts. It seems he took
much delight in this place, in respect of the spacious woods and
tiiat large and pleasant lake (through which divers petty streams do
pass) lying amongst them ; for it was he that first built that great
and strong castle here, which was the glory of all these parts, and
for many respects may be ranked in the third place at the least with
the most stately castles in England." Dugdale (' Baronage ') here
refers no doubt to the strength, size, and architectural character of
the castle; but if its historical importance be considered, or, above
all, if we weigh the associations which a single writer of our own
age has bound up with its decaying walls, we must assign to it a
rank that knows no superior: we must consider the " glory of these
parts " might now without exaggeration be more accurately described
as the glory of the civilized world.

With a group of border castles— Norham, Warkworth, and New-
castle— we shall conclude for the present our notice of such structures.
No mention is made in Domesday-Book of the county of Northum-
berland, in which these three castles are situated, for the reason pro-
bably that the Conqueror could not even pretend to have taken pos-
session of it. And there was then little temptation to induce him to
achieve its conquest. Nothing can be conceived more truly anarchic
than the state of the country in and around Northumberland at the
time. The chief employment of the inhabitants was plundering
the Scots on the other side of the Tweed — their chief ambition was
to avoid being plundered in return. But the Scots seem generally
to have had the best of it; who, not content with taking goods,
began to take the owners also, and make domestic slaves of them.
It is said that about or soon after the period of the Conquest, there
was scarcely a single house in Scotland that was without one or
more of these English unfortunates. To check such terrible inroads,
castles now began to spring up in every part ; to these the inhabit-
ants generally of a district flocked on any alarm of danger ; and
for centuries such a state of things continued unchanged. A highly
interesting picture of domestic border life, and which is at the same
time unquestionably trustworthy, has been preserved in the writings
of Pope Pius II., who, before his elevation to the pontificate ri*i:ied
various countries in an official capacity — amongst the rest Scotland,
to which he was sent as private legate about the middle of the
fifteenth century. tJ The Border Land" naturally attracted his
curiosity, and he determined to risk the danger of a personal visit.
He thus describes the result. His family name, it may be mentioned,
was iEneas Sylvius Piccolomini.

,; There is a river (the Tweed) which, spreading itself from a
high mountain, parts the two kingdoms. JEneas having crossed
this in a boat, and arriving about sunset at a large village, went
to the house of a peasant, and there supped with the priest of the
place and his host. The table was plentifully spread with large
quantities of pulse, poultry, and geese, but neither wine nor bread
was to bo found there ; and all the people of the town, both men and
woman, flocked about him as to some new sight ; and as we gaze
at negroes or Indians, so did they stare at ./Eneas, asking the priest
where he came from, what he came about, and whether he was a
Christian. _<Eneas, understanding the difficulties he must expect on
this journey, had taken care to provide himself at a certain monas-
tery wiili some loaves, and a measure of red wine, at sight of which

they were seized with greater astonishment, having never seen wine
or white bread. The supper lasting till the second hour of the night,
the priest and host, with all the men and children, made the best of
their way off, and left ^Eneas. They said they were going to a
tower a great way off, for fear of the Scots, who when the tide was
out would come over the river and plunder; nor could they, with all
his entreaties, by any means be prevailed on to take JEneas with
them nor any of thy women, though many of them were young and
handsome ; for they think them in no danger from an enemy, not
considering violence offered to women as any harm. JEneas there-
fore remained alone with them, with two servants and a guide, and a
hundred women, who made a circle round the fire, and sat the rest of
the night without sleeping, dressing hemp and chatting with the
interpreter. Night was now far advanced when a great noise was
heard by the barking of the degs and screaming of the geese; all
the women made the best of their way off, the guide getting away
with the rest, and there was as much confusion as if the enemy
was at hand. iEneas thought it more prudent to wait the event in
his bed-room (which happened to be a stable), apprehending if he
went out he might mistake his way, and be robbed by the first he
met. And soon after the women came back with the interpreter,
and reported there was no danger : for it was a party of friends, and
not of enemies, that were come." (Camden's translation.) Just such
a castle of defence for a population, rather than a residence for their
lord, we may suppose Norham: (Fig. 428) to have been built by the
Bishops of Durham, about the beginning of the twelfth century ; the
glooinyr ruins which still overhang the Tweed exhib'ting no traces
of exterior ornament, its walls reduced to a mere shell, its outworks
demolished, and a part of the very hill on which it was raised washed
away by the river. The keep alone exists in a state to remind us
of the original strength and importance of the fortress, when it was so
frequently the scene of contest between the people of the two countries.
On the accession of Stephen we find David of Scotland besieging and
capturing Norham, for Maud, Stephen's rival ; a little later the
process was repeated by and for the same parties ; and then Norham is
said to have been demolished. In the reign of John, however, we
find it in existence, stronger than ever, and successfully resisting the
utmost efforts of the Scots, then in alliance with the revolted English
Barons. The next time the defenders were less brave, or less
fortunate: in the reign of Edward III. the Scots once more ob-
tained possession of Norham. But we need not follow its history
further ; so by way of contrast to the scene as represented in oui
engraving, let us transcribe a glimpse of Norham Castle under more
favourable circumstances : —

" Day set on Norhara's castle steep,
And Tweed's fair liver, broad and deep,

And Cheviot's mountains lone ;
The battled towers, the dragon keep,
The loop-bole grates, where captives weep,
The flanking walls that round it sweep,

la yellow bistre shone.

" The warriors on the turrets high,
Moving athwart the evening sky,
Seeni'd forms of giant height ;
Their armour, as it caught the rays,
Flash'd back again with western blaze
In lines of dazzling light."

Ma rmiox.

The ruins of "Warkworth (Figs. 419, 420), in their generally
elegant and picturesque outline, present a strong contrast to those
of Norham. Residence for the lord as well as protection for his
vassals has evidently been studied here. The situation in itself is
wonderfully fine. It stands on an eminence above the river
Coquet, a little beyond the southern extremity of the town of
Warkworth, and commands on all sides views of the greatest
beauty and variety. In one direction you have the sea outspread
before you, with the Fern Islands scattered over its surface; whilst
alon"" the shore-line the eye passes to the Castles of Dunstan-
borou<»h and Bamborough at the extremity; in another you dwell
with pleasure on the richly cultivated valley that extends up to
Alnwick Castle; then again in a third, there are the beautiful
banks of the Coquet liver, dear to salmon-fishers and lovers of
native precious stones, many of which are found among its sands;
and lastly, in a fourth, you gaze upon an extensive plain inclining
seawards, and which is as remarkable for the fertility of its soil,
and the amount of its agricultural products, as for the air of
peaceful happiness that overspreads the whole— pasture, arable, and
woodlands, villages, hamlets, and churches. Such was the site, and
the structure was scarcely less magnificent. The outer walls,
which are in many parts entire, enclosed a space of about five acres,

P 2

.

429.— romfret Castle.

I ' -d^^tf-- ■- .■■■■'■■•~v --.■■■■'

430.— Ken il worth Cattle in 1G20.— From the Fresco Painting at Newnbam Tadox.

^£%t£*££m

426. — Ruins of Farnham Castle.

427.— Tlie Keep, Carisbrooke Castle.

428.— Ruins of Norbam Castle.

431.— Castle of Newcastle-upon-Tyne-

100

no

OLD ENGLAND.

fBooK 11,

were about thirty-five feet high, and encircled by a moat. The gate-
way, of which little is preserved, was a noble building-, with numerous
apartments for the officers of the castle; and the keep, which was
of great size, and octagonal, bad its eight apartments with stone
vaulted roofs on the ground floor, for the protection, it is said, of
cattle brought in from the neighbourhood during any incursion of
the Scots ; also its great Baronial Hall, nearly forty feet long by
twenty-four wide, and twenty high ; all of which, though deprived of
their roofs, floors, and windows, remain, through the excellence of the
masonry, in admirable preservation. Cupidity alone, indeed, has
been here at work to destroy. In Leland's time the castle was " well
maintained," but in the early part of the seventeenth century the
buildings of the outer court, with some others, were stripped of their
lead and otherwise dismantled; and in 1672 the noble keep itself
was unroofed. Warkworth has for several centuries been in pos-
session of the Percy family. One can hardly mention these names
together without also noticing t'he neighbouring hermitage, which
Bishop Percy lias made memorable by his poem of the ' Hermit of
Warkworth.' This is situated in the perpendicular rocks which
form the north bank of the Coquet, about a mile above the town,
and consists of" two apartments hewn cut of the rock, with a
lower and outward apartment of masonry, built up against the side
of the rock, which rises about twenty feet high ; the principal apart-
ment, or chapel, is about eighteen feet long, seven and a half wide,
and seven and a half high, adorned with pilasters, from which soring
the groins of the roof: at the east end is an altar with a niche be-
hind it for a crucifix ; and near the altar is a cavity containing a ceno-
taph, with a recumbent female figure having the hands raised in the
attitude of prayer. In the inner apartment are another altar and a
niche for a couch. From this inner apartment was a door leading
to an open gallery or cloister. Steps led up from the hermitage
to the hermit's garden at the top of the bank." (Penny Cyclopaedia.)
Who was the inhabitant of this strange home, and why he inhabited
it, are questions that after all we must leave the poets and romance-
writers to solve, and they could not be in better hands. It has been
supposed that one of the Bertram family, who had murdered his
brother, was the tenant of the hermitage, desiring in solitude by
unceasing repentance to expiate his crime ; but all we know is that
the Percy family maintained from some unknown period a chantry
priest here.

As the present fortress of Newcastle (Fig. 431) was erected
by Robert de Curthose, the eldest of the Conqueror's sons, on his
return from an expedition into Scotland, we may judge of the
general antiquity of the place by the name then given, the New-
Castle. There can be no doubt, indeed, that the spot had been a
Roman station, and very little but that in those early days it had
been of some importance. After the introduction of Christianity
the place became known by the name of Monk Chester, from the
number of monastic institutions it contained. On the erection of
the fortress, the town took the same name, New-Castle. The
tower of this Norman structure remains essentially complete, and
forms one of the most striking specimens in existence of the rude
but grand-looking and (for the time) almost impregnable Norman
stronghold. The first point of attraction to a visitor's eyes on
entering Newcastle is that huge gloomy pile ; it is also the last on
which he turns his lingering glance on his departure. It stands
upon a raised platform near the river, majestically isolated in its
own "garth" or yard, to which we ascend by a steep flight of steps,
spanned near the top by a strong postern with a circular Norman
arch, reminding us of the difficulties that formerly attended such
ascent when the approval of the inhabitants of the castle had not
been previously gained. Crossing the garth to the east side, the
one shown in the engraving (Fig. 431), we perceive the extraordi-
nary character of the entrance, which, commencing at the corner on
the left hand, and gradually rising, runs through the pile that
seems to have been built against the keep rather than forming
an integral part of it up to a considerable height, where the real
entrance into the keep (originally most richly decorated) is to be
found. Through this entrance we pass into one of the most re-
markable of halls ; it. is of immense breadth, length, and height,
dimly lighted through the various slit holes, hung here and there
with rusty armour, and inhabited by an old pensioner and his
family, whose little domestic conveniences when the eye does light
upon them (for generally speaking they are lost in the magnitude of
the place) have a peculiarly quaint effect. The recesses in various
parts formed out of the solid thickness of the wall give us the best
idea of its strength; one of these, possibly intended for the min-
strels who sung the mighty deeds of the Norman chivalry to men
yearning to emulate their fame, is alone of the size of a small and
not very small apartment. But let us descend by the winding

staircase to the chapel beneath; recalling as we go a few recollec-
tions on the general subject of chapels in castles.

In the plan of an ancient castle (Fig. 346) it will be seen that
the chapel forms a component part of the whole; and in turning
from the plan to the descriptions of our castles generally, we find
in almost every case a similar provision made for the performance
of religious duties. It may seem either a melancholy or a condola-
tory consideration, according to the point of view from which we
look, to perceive that in the age to winch our present pages refer
when the mailed nobles made might right, declared their jdeasure
and called it law, that then religion, as far as regarded sincere, zea-
lous, and most unquestioning faith, and an indefatigable observance
of all its forms and ceremonies, formed also a most couspicuous
feature of the same men. To pray for mercy one hour, and be most
merciless the next ; to glorify the Giver of all good, as the most fitting
preparation for the dispensation of all evil ; to enshrine their hopes
of salvation on the altar of Christ, the divine messenger of love,
whilst they pressed forward to the mortal end of all through a con-
tinuous life of rapine, violence, and strife ; — these were the almost
unvarying characteristics of the early Norman lords, the builders
of the old castles, where the keep and the chapel yet stand in many
places side by side in most significant juxtaposition ; the materia"*
embodiment of the two principles thus strangely brought together
working to the most opposite conclusions, but with the utmost appa-
rent harmony of intention. The great castle-builder provided his
walls and his courts, his keep and his dungeons ; but a chapel was
no less indispensable alike to his station and his actual wants. Be-
leaguered or free, he must be able at all times to hear the daily
mass, or, more grateful still to lordly ears, the pious orison offered
up for his own and his family's welfare ; lie must be able to fly to
the chapel for succour when the " thick-coming fancies " of super-
stition press upon his imagination and appal him by their mysterious
influence, or when defeat or danger threatens ; there, too, in the
hour of triumph must he be found, his own voice mingling with
the chant of the priests ; at births, baptisms, marriages, and deaths,
the sacred doors must ever be at hand ; the child fast growing up
towards man's estate, who has spent his entire life within the castle
walls, looks forward to the chapel as the scene that shall usher him
into a world of glory — already he feels the touch of the golden
spurs, the sway of the lofty plumes, the thrill of the fair hands
that gird on his maiden sword ; already with alternating hopes and
fears, he anticipates his solitary midnight vigil within the chapel
walls. And truly such a night in such a place as this, to which we
have descended, below the keep of Newcastle, was calculated to try
the tone of the firmest nerves ; for though beautiful, exceedingly
beautiful it is in all that respects the a:chitectural style to which
it belongs, and of which it is a rare example, there are here no
lofty pointed windows, with their storied panes, to admit the full
broad stream of radiant splendour, or to give the idea of airiness or
elegance to the structure. All is massive, great, and impressively
solemn (Fig. 432).

The Chapel in the Tower of London (Fig. 433), equally perfect
with that of Newcastle, and probably equally ancient, presents in
its aspect as remarkable a contrast to that structure as a work erected
in the same age, country, and style could have well given us. Here
we have aisles divided from the nave by gigantic but noble-looking
pillars, being divested of the low stunted character often apparent
in Norman ecclesiastical edifices ; and their effect is enhanced in no
slight degree by the arches in the story above. The chapel is now
used as a Record Office. We need only briefly mention the other
ecclesiastical building of the Tower, the Chapel of St. Peter, stand-
ing in the area that surrounds the White Tower, and which must
be of very early date, since we find that in the reign of Henry III.
it was existing in a state of great splendour, with stalls for the king
and queen, two chancels, a fine cross, beautiful sculpture, paintings,
and stained glass. But at whatever period erected, the view (Fig.
434) shows us that material alterations tf the original building have
probably taken place, though no doubt the pews, the flat roof, and
the Tudor monuments are themselves sufficient, in so small a place,
to conceal or to injure the naturally antique expression. But there
are peculiar associations connected with these walls that make all
others tedious in the comparison as a ".twice-told tale." In our
previous remarks we have glanced at the general uses of the cha-
pels in our old castles ; this one of the Tower has been devoted to
a more momentous service than any there enumerated ; hither, from
time to time, have come a strangely assorted company, led by the
most terrible of guides, the executioner, through the most awful
of paths, a sudden and violent death : in a word, beneath the un-
suargestive-looking pavement, which seems to mock one's earne: :
d along; which one walks with a reverential dread of (lis-

Chap. i.J

OLD ENGLAND.

Ill

turbing the ashes of those who lie below, were buried the innocent
Anne Boleyn and her brother, and the guilty Catherine Howard
and her associate, Lady Roehford ; the venerable Lady Salisbury,
and Cromwell, Henry VlII.'s minister; the tsvo Seymours, the
Admiral and the Protector of the reign of Edward VI., and the
Duke of Norfolk, and the Earl of Essex, of the reign of Elizabeth ;
Charles IL'sson, the Duke of Monmouth, and the Earls of Bal merino
and Kilmarnock, with their ignoble coadjutor, Lord Lovat ; above
all, here were buried Bishop Fisher, and his illustrious friend More.
One would suppose, on looking over such a list of names, that the
scaffuld, while assuming the mission of Death, was emulous to strike
with all Death's impartiality, and sweep away just and unjust, guilty
and innocent, with equal imperturbability. It was a short road from
the opening to this death-in-life at the Traitor's Gate (Fig. 43-0),
and thence through the gaping jaws of the Bloody Tower (Fig. 436),
to the final resting-place of St. Peter's Chapel.

History and ballad, the chronicler and the troubadour, and more
effectually than either, the novelist of the North, have made Richard
Cceur de Lion one of the favourite heroes of England (Fig. 437).
Without the wisdom of his great father, he was the representative of
tl?3 courage, the fortitude, and the gallantry of the Plantagenets —
of the mixed blood of the Saxon and Norman races. "VVe follow
the fortunes of the royal crusader over many a battle-field, in whicli
gallantry was always sure of its guerdon from his knightly sword
(Fig. 442). We can almost believe in the old metrical romance,
which tells us how

" The awless lion could not wage the fight,
Nor keep his princely heart from Richard's hand."

(Fig. 444.) The touching friendship of his minstrel, Blondel, tells
us that the lion-hearted king had something even nobler in his nature
than his indomitable courage and his physical strength. " One day
lie (Blondel) sat directly before a window of the castle where King
Richard was kept prisoner, and began to sing a song in French,
which King Richard and Blondel had sometime composed together.
When King Richard heard the song, he knew it was Blondel that
sung it ; and when Blondel paused at half of the song, the King
began the other half, and completed it." His was a premature
death. But generous as he was, he would have been a dangerous
keeper of the rights of England. Of his brother John, the mean
and treacherous John, a modern writer finely says: "The strong
hands of the two first Plantagenets, Henry II. and Richard Coeur
de Lion, his father and brother, were in the dust, and the iron
sceptre which they had wielded lay rusting among the heavy
armour which an imbecile and coward could not wear" (Pictorial
History of England, vol. i.). The heart of Richard, by his own
direction, was carried to his faithful city of Rouen for interment,
and his body was buried at the feet of his father at Fontevraud :
his statue, which was placed upon his tomb in that ancient
monastery, is still remaining. It is of painted stone, and this is the
principal authority for the portrait of Richard (Fig. 438). Here
also is an effigy of his Queen Berengaria (Fig. 440). The faithful
city of Rouen did not well keep its faith to the lion-hearted. A
splendid tomb was erected over the heart of the king, and it was
surrounded by a silver balustrade; but within half a century the
faithful city melted the silver. In the year 1733 the chapter of the
Cathedral, to effect some alteration in their church, pulled down
the monuments of Richard and his brother, and of the great Duke
of Bedford, and they laid down three plain slabs instead, in the
pavement of the high altar. In 1838 some searches under this pave-
ment were made by the prefect of the department, and amongst the
rubbish was found a fine but mutilated statue of Richard (Fig. 439),
and a leaden box containing a smaller box, which held all that re-
mained of the lion-heart — something that had " the appearance of a
reddish-coloured leaf, dry and bent round at the ends." — "To this
complexion we must come at last."

The name of King John has two leading associations — Magna
Charta and his murdered nephew. The great dramatic poet of
England has so associated the fortunes of Constance and Arthur
with the troubles, the fears, and the death-struggles of their faith-
less kinsman, that we look upon these events through the poetical
medium as a natural series of cause and consequence. " The death
of Arthur and the events which marked the last days of John were
separated in their causes and effect by time only, over which the poet
leaps." But the political history of John may be read in the most
durable of antiquities — the Records of the kingdom. And the
people may read the most remarkable of these records whenever they
please to look upon it. Magna Charta, the great charter of Eng-
land, entire as at the hour in which it' was written, is preserved, not

for reference on doubtful questions of right, not to be proclaimed
at market-crosses or to be read in churches, as in the time of
Edward I., but for the gratification of a just curiosity and i.n honest
national pride. The humblest in the land may look upon that
document day by day, in the British Museum, which more than si\
hundred years ago declared that " no freeman shall be arrested or
imprisoned, or dispossessed of his tenement, or outlawed, or exiled,
or in any manner proceeded against, unless by the legal judgment
of his peers, or by the law of the land." This is the foundation of
statute upon statute, and of what is as stringent as statute, the
common law, through which for six hundred years we have been
struggling to breathe the breath of freedom— and we have not
struggled in vain. The Great Charter is in Latin, written in a
beautiful hand, of which we give a specimen in Fig. 4,58.

Runnemede— or Runin»mede, as the Charter his it — was, ac-
cording to Matthew of Westminster, a place where treaties con-
cerning the peace of the kingdom had been often made. The name
distinctly signifies a place of council. lluuc-mcd is an An^lo-
Saxon compound, meaning the Council-Meadow. We can never
forget that Council-Meadow, for it entered into our first visions of
Liberty : —

" Fair Ilunr.cmede! oft hath my lingering eye
Paus'd on thy tufted green and cultur'd hill;
And there my busy soul would drink her fill

Of lofty dreams, whicli on thy bosom lie.

Dear plain ! never my feet have pa.ss'd thee by,
At sprightly morn, high noon, or evening still,
But thou hast fashion'd all my pliant will

To soul-ennobling thoughts of liberty.

Thou dost not need a perishable stone
Of sculptur'd story ; — records ever young

Proclaim the gladdening triumph thou hast known :
The soil, the passing stream, hath still a tongue ;

And every wind breathes out an eloquent tone,

That Freedom's self might wake thy fields among."

These are commonplace rhymes — schoolboy verses ; but we are
not ashamed of having written them. Runnemede was our Mara-
thon. Very beautiful is that narrow slip of meadow on the edge of
the Thames, with gentle hills bounding it for a mile or so. It is a
valley of fertility. Is this a fitting place to be the cradle of English
freedom ? Ought we not, to make our associations harmonious, to
have something bolder and sterner than this quiet mead, and that
still water with its island cottage? (Fig. 455.). Poetry tells us that
" rocky ramparts" are

" The rough abodes of want and liberty." — Gray.

But the liberty of England was nurtured in her prosperity. The
Great Chatter, which says, "No freeman, or merchant, or villain
shall be unreasonably fined for a small offence — the first shall not
be deprived of his tenement, the second of his merchandise, the
third of his implements of husbandry" — exhibited a state far more
advanced than that of the " want and liberty," of the poet, where
the iron race of the mountain cliffs

"Insult the plenty of the vales below."

Runnemede is a fitting place for the cradle of English liberty.
Denham, who from his Cooper's Hill looked down upon the Thames,
wandering past this mead to become " the world's exchange," some-
what tamely speaks of the plain at his feet : —

" Here was that Charter seal'd, wherein the crown
All marks of arbitrary power lays down ;
Tyrant and slave, those names of hate and fear,
The happier style of king and subject bear;
Happy when both to the same centre move,
When kings give liberty, and subjects love."

Our liberty was not so won. It was wrested from kings, and not
given by them ; and the love we bestow upon those who are the
central point of our liberty is the homage of reason to security.
That security has made the Thames "the world's exchange;" that
security has raised up the great city which lies like a mist below
Cooper's Hill ; that security has caused the towers of Windsor,
which we see from the same hill, to rise up in new splendour,
instead of crumbling into ruin like many a stronghold of feudal
oppression. Our prosperity is the child of our free institutions ;
and the child has gone forward strengthening and succouring the
parent. Yet the iron men who won this charter of liberties dreamt
not of the day when a greater power than their own, the power of
the merchants and the villains, would rise up to keep what they had
sworn to win upon the altar of St. Edmundsbury (Fig. 463). The
Fitz-Walter, and De Roos, and De Clare, and De Percy, and De
Mandeville, and De Vescy, and De Mowbray, and De Montacute,
and De Beauchamp — these great progenitors of our English nobi-
lity— compelled the despot to put his seal to the Charter ( f Runne

433.— Interior of the Chapel in tiie White Towe

432.— Chapel in Newcastle Castle

435. -The Traitor's '..'ate.

-:3;.— Liatcx a ol the Lluody Towe

112

437.— Great Seal of Richard I.

%

4 ?.-RioharJ 1.— \x m his Tomb atFi'iitevrault.

liJ

/

fliK

■ '\— Berengaria, Queen of Richard I
From the Tomb at Fontevrault.

■'V1

Aji —The Normaa Crraoder.

430.— Effigy of Richard I.— From tho
Gt^tuj found at R'"ien.

' 4ia.— luuoUuug on the Field of Battle-

441. — A van tulles.
o, Helmet of Richard I
b, Baldwin, Cuunt of Flanders, 1192
c , .. 1203.

44-WRicbard and the Lion.

No. 15.

ir

Ill

OLD ENGLAND.

|Book II.

mede (Fig. 459). But another order of men, whom they of the
pointed shield and the. mascled armour would have despised as slaves,
have kept and will keep, God willing, what they won on the loth
of June in the year of grace 1215. The thing has rooted into our
English, earth like the Ankerwyke Yew on the opposite bank of the
Thames, which is still vigorous, though held to be older than the
great day of Runnemede (Fig. 457).

Magna Charta is a record. Bishop Nicolson says, " Our stores
of public records are justly reckoned to excel in age, beauty, cor-
rectness, and authority, whatever the choicest archives abroad can
boast of the like sort." Miles, nay. hundreds of miles, of parchment
are preserved in our public offices, which incidentally exhibit the
progress of the nation in its institutions and its habits, and decide
many an historical fact which would otherwise be matter of con-
troversy or of speculation. Nothing can more truly manifest the
value of these documents than the fact that the actual place in
which this said King John was, on almost every day, from the first
year of his reign to the last, has been traced by a diligent examina-
tion of the Patent Rolls in the Tower of London. Mr. Hardy has
appended to his curious Introduction to these Rolls, published by
authority of the Record Commission, the ' Itinerary of King John.'
A most restless being does he appear to have been, flying about in
cumbrous carriages (Fig. 461) to all parts of England ; sailing to
Normandy (Fig. 460) ; now holding his state in his Palace at
Westminster, now at Windsor (Fig. 464) ; and never at ease till
he was laid in his tomb at Worcester (Fig. 465). We extract an
instructive passage from Mr. Hardy's Introduction: —

" Rapin, Hume, Henry, and those English historians who have
followed Matthew Paris, state that, as soon as King John had
sealed the Great Charter, he became sullen, dejected, and reserved,
and shunning the society of his nobles and courtiers, retired, with a
few of his attendants, to the Isle of Wight, as if desirous of hiding his
shame and confusion, where he conversed only with fishermen and
sailors, diverting himself with walking on the sea-shore with his
domestics ; that, in his retreat, he formed plans for the recovery of
the prerogatives which he had lately relinquished ; and meditated,
at the same time, the most fatal vengeance against his enemies;
that he sent his emissaries abroad to collect an army of mercenaries
and Brabagons, and dispatched messengers to Rome, for the purpose
of securing the protection of the papal see; and that, whilst his
agents were employed in executing their several commissions, he
himself remained in the Isle of Wight, awaiting the arrival of the
" foreign soldiers.

" That these statements are partially if not wholly unfounded will
appear by the attestations to the royal letters during the period in
question.

" Previously to the sealing of Magna Charta, namely, from the
1st to the 3rd of June, 1215, the King was at Windsor, from which
place he can be traced, by his attestations, to Odiham, and thence
to AVinchester, where he remained till the 8th. From Winchester
he went to Merton ; he was again at Odiham on the 9th, whence
he returned to Windsor, and continued there till the 15th : on that
day he met the barons at Runnemede by appointment, and there
sealed the great charter of English liberty. The King then returned
to Windsor, and remained there until the 18th of June, from which
time until the 23rd he was every day both at Windsor and Runne-
mede, and did not finally leave Windsor and its vicinity before
the 26th of the same month ; John then proceeded through Odiham
to Winchester, and continued in that city till the end of June. The
first four days of July he passed at Marlborough, from which place
he went to Devizes, Bradenstoke, and Calne ; reached Cirencester
•>n the 7th, and returned to Marlborough on the following day.
He afterwards went to Ludgershall, and through Clarendon into
Dorsetshire, as far as Corfe Castle, but returned to Clarendon
on the 15th of July, from which place he proceeded, through New-
bury and Abingdon, to Woodstock, and thence "to Oxford, where
he arrived on the 17th of that month ; and in a letter dated on the
15th of July, between Newbury and Abingdon, the King mentions
the impossibility of his reaching Oxford by the 16th, according to
his appointment with the barons."

The publications of the Record Commissioners are enriched by
the researches of some of our most eminent living antiquarians, who
have brought to their task a fund of historical knowledge, and a
sagacity in showing the connection between these dust-covered
records and the history of our constitution, which have imparted a
precision to historical writing unknown to the last age. No man
has laboured more assiduously in this field than Sir Francis Palgrave ;
and he has especially shown that a true antiquary is not a mere
scavenger of the baser things of time, but one whose talent and
knowledge can discover the use and the connection of ancient things,

which are not really worn out, and which are only held to be worth-
less by the ignorant and the unimaginative. Sir Francis Palgrave is
the Keeper of the Records in the Treasury of the Exchequer, and
his publication of the ancient Kalendars and Inventories of that
Treasury contains a body of documents of the greatest value, intro-
duced by an account of this great depository of the Crown Records
which is full of interest and instruction. " The custom of depositing
records and muniments amongst the treasures of the state is
grounded upon such obvious reasons, that it prevailed almost
universally amongst ancient nations ; nor, indeed, is it entirely
discontinued at the present day. The earliest, and in all respects
the most remarkable, testimony concerning this practice is found in
the Holy Scriptures: — 'Now, therefore, if it seem good to the
King, let there be search made in the King's Treasure-house, which
is there at Babylon, whether it be so, that a decree was made of
Cyrus the King to build this house of God at Jerusalem.' 'Then
Darius the King made a decree, and search was made in the House
of the Rolls, where the treasures were laid up in Babylon.'" The
high antiquity of this custom imparts even a new value to our own
Treasure Chambers. Those who feel an interest in the subject may
consult a brief but valuable article under th« head ' Records' in the
' Penny Cyclopaedia.' From Sir Francis Falgrave's Introduction to
the Ancient Kalendars we extract one or two amusing passages
descriptive of some of the figures in p. 121 : —

"The plans anciently adopted for the arrangement and preserva-
tion of the instruments had many peculiarities. Presses, such as are
now employed, do not seem to have been in use. Chests bound with
iron ; — forcers or coffers, secured in the same manner ; — pouches or
bags of canvass or leather (Fig. 468) ; skippets, or small boxes
turned on the lathe (Fig. 469) ; — tills or drawers ; — and hanapers
or hampers of 'twyggys' (Fig. 470) ;— are all enumerated as the
places of stowage or deposit. To these reference was made, some-
times by letters, sometimes by inscriptions, sometimes by tickets or
labels, and sometimes by ' signs ;' that is to say, by rude sketches,
drawings, or paintings, which had generally some reference to the
subject matter of the documents (Fig. 407).

" Thus the signal the instruments relating to Arrngon is a lancer
on a jennet ; — Wales, a Briton in the costume of his country, one
foot shod and the other bare ; — Ireland, an Irisher, clad in a very
singular hood and cape; — Scotland, a Lochaber axe; — Yarmouth,
three united herrings ; — the rolls of the Justices of the Fore.-f, an
oak sapling ; — the obligations entered into by t'he men of Chester, for
their due obedience to Edward, Earl of Chester, a gallows, indicating
the fate which might be threatened in case of rebellion, or which
the officers of the Treasury thought they had already well deserved;
— Royal marriages, a hand in hand ; — the indentures relating to the
subsidy upon woollen cloths, a pair of shears ; — instruments relating
to the lands of the Earl of Gloucester in Wales, a castle surrounded
by a banner charged with the Clare arms; — and the like, of which
various examples will be found by inspection of the calendars ai.d
memoranda.*

" Two ancient boxes painted with shields of arms, part of the old
furniture, are yet in existence, together with several curious cheats,
coffers, and skippets of various sorts and sizes, all sufficiently curious
and uncouth, together with various specimens of the hanapers woven
of ' twyggys,' as described in the text.

" One of these hanapers was discovered under rather remarkable
circumstances. On the 15th of Feb., in the third year of the reign of
Richard II., Thomas Orgrave, clerk, delivers into the Treasury, to be
there safely kept, certain muniments relating to the lands and tene-
ments in Berkhampstead, formerly belonging to William, the son and
heir of John Hunt, and which the king had purchased of Dyonisia,
the widow of William de Sutton, and which are stated to be placed
in a certain hanaper or hamper within a chest over the receipt.
Upon a recent inspection of a bag of deeds relating to the county
of Berks, I found that it contained the hanaper so described, with a

* " The rolls of the Justices of the Forest were marked by the sapling oak (No. 1).
Papal bulls, by the triple crown. Four canvass pouches holding rolls and tallies
of certain payments made for the church of Westminster were marked by the church
(3). The head in a cowl (4) marked an indenture respecting the jewels found in the
house of the Fratres Minores in Salop. The scales (5), the assay of the mint in
Dublin. The Briton having one foot shod and the other bare, with the lance and
sword (6), marked the wooden 'coffin' holding the acquittance of receipts fiom
Llewellin, Prince of Wales. Three herrings (7), the ' forcer ' of leather bound with
iron, containing documents relating to Yarmouth, &c. The lancer (8), documents
relating to Arrngon. The united hands (9), the marriage between Henry, Prince of
Wales, and Philippa, daughter of Henry IV. The galley (10), the recognizance
of merchants of the three galleys of Venice. The hand and book (11), iealty to
kings John and Henry. The charter or cyrograph (12), treaties and truces between
England and Scotland. The hooded monk (13), advowsons of Irish churches,
and the castle with a banner of the Clare arms (14), records relating to the pos-
sessions of the Earl of Gloucester in Wales." — (Penny Cyclopaedia.)

Chap. I.J

OLD ENGLAND.

115

label exactly conformable to the entry in the memoranda, crumbling
and decaying, but tied up, and in a state which evidently showed
that it had never been opened since the time of its first deposit in
the Treasury; and within the hanaper were all the several deeds,
with their reals in the highest state of preservation."

Connected with the subject of the ancient records of the crown
may be mentioned the tallies cf the Exchequer, which were actually
in use from the very earliest times till the year 1834. These pri-
mitive records of account have been thus described : " The tallies
used in the Exchequer (one is shown in Fig. 471) answered the
purpose of receipts as well as simple records of matters of account.
They consisted of squared rods of hazel or other wood, upon one
side of which was marked, by notches, the sum for which the tally
was an acknowledgment; oi>e kind of notch standing for 1000/.,
another for 100/., another for 20/., and others for 205., Is., &c.
On two other sides of the tally, opposite to each other, the amount
of the sum, the name of the payer, and the date of the transaction,
were written by an officer called the writer of the tallies; and after
this was done, the stick was cleft longitudinally in such a manner
that each piece retained one of the written sides, and one-half of
every notch cut in the tally. One piece was then delivered to the
person who had paid in the money, for which it was a receipt or
acquittance, while the other was preserved in the Exchequer."
The Saxon Reeve-pole, used in the Isle of Portland down to a very
recent period by the collector of the king's rents, shows the sum
which each person has to pay to the king as lord of the manor
(Fig. 473). The Clog Almanac, which was common in Stafford-
shire in the seventeenth century, was in the same way a record
of the future, cut on the sides of a square stick, such as exhibited in

Fig. 472.

The same combination against the power of the Crown which
produced the great charter of our liberties, relieved the people
from many regal oppressions by a charter of the forests. We can-
not look upon an old forest without thinking of the days when men
who had been accustomed to the free range of their green woods
Avere mulcted or maimed for transgressing the ordinances of their
new hunter-kings. Our poet Cowper put his imagination in the
track of following out the customs of the Norman age in his frag-
ment upon Yardley Oak, which was supposed to have existed beibre
the Normans : —

" Thou wast a bauble once ; a cup and ball,
Which babes might play with ; and the thicvisb jay,
Seeking her food, with ease might have purloin'd
The auburn nut that held theo, swallowing down
Thy yet close-folded latitude of boughs
And all thine embryo vastness at a gulp.
But fate thy growth decreed ; autumnal rains
Beneath thy parent tree mellow'd the soil
Design'd thy cradle ; and a skipping deer,
"With pointed hoof dibbling the glebe, prepared
The soft receptacle, in which, secure,
Thy rudiments should sleep the winter through."

But the poet's purpose failed. England is full of such natural anti-
quities of the earliest period : " Within five and twenty miles of St.
Paul's, the Great Western Railway will place us in an hour (having
an additional walk of about two miles) in the heart of one of the most
secluded districts in England. We know nothing of forest scenery
equal to Bnrnham Beeches (Fig. 476). There are no spots approach-
ing to it in wild grandeur to be found in Windsor Forest ; Sherwood,
we have been fold, has trees as ancient, but few so entirely un-
touched in modern times. When at the village of Burnham, which
is about a mile and a half from the Railway-station at Maidenhead,
the beeches may be reached by several roads, each very beautiful
in its seclusion. We ascend a hill, and find a sort of table-land
forming a rude common with a few scattered houses. Gradually
the common grows less open. We see large masse* of wood in
clumps, and now and then a gigar.tic tree close by the road. The
trunks of these scattered trees are of amazing size. They are for
the most part pollards ; but not having been lopped for very many
years, they have thrown out mighty arms, which give us a notion
of some deformed son of Anak, noble as well as fearful in his gro-
tesque proportions. As we advance the wood thickens; and as
the road leads us into a deep dell, we are at length completely
embosomed in a leafy wilderness. This dell is a most romantic
spot: it extends for some quarter of a mile between overhanging
banks covered with the graceful forms of the ash and the birch :
while the contorted beeches show their fantastic roots and unwieldy
trunks Upon the edge of the glen, in singular contrast. If we walk
up this valley, we may emerge into the plain of beeches, from which

the place derives its name. It is not easy to make scenes such as
these interesting in description. The great charm of this spot may
be readily conceived, when it is known that its characteristic is an
entire absence of human care. The property has been carefully
preserved in its ancient state, and the axe of the woodman for many
a day has not been heard within its precincts. The sheep wander
through the tender grass as if they were the rightful lords of the
domain. We asked a solitary old man, who was sitting on a stump,
whether there was any account who planted this ancient wood ■
'Planted!' he replied, 'it was never planted: those trees are as
old as the world !' However sceptical we might be as to the poor
man's chronology, we were sure that history or tradition could tell
little about their planting." We visited this place in 1841, and
this slight notice of it already published may as well be transferred
to these pages. But England has a store of popular associations
with her old oaks and yews in the vast collection of Robin Hood
Ballads.

If there be one district of England over which more than over
any other Romance seems to have asserted an unquestionable su-
premacy— " This is mine henceforth, forever !" — and over which she
has drawn her veil of strange enchantments, making the fairest
objects appear fairer through that noble medium, and giving beauty
even to deformity itself, it is surely Sherwood Forest. If there be
one man of England whose story above the stories of all other men
has entered deeply into the popular heart, or stirred powerfully the
popular imagination, there can be no doubt but it is the bold yeoman-
forester Robin Hood. Who, in youth, ever read unmoved the ballads
in which that story is chiefly related, absurd and untrue as un-
doubtedly many of them are? Who now can behold even a partial
reflex of the lives of these joyous inhabitants of the green woods,
such, for instance, as 'As You Like It' affords, without a sigh at
the contrast presented to our own safer, more peaceable, but
altogether unromantic pursuits? It is well, perhaps, that there is
now no banished duke " in the Forest of Arden, and so many merry
men with him," living there "like the old Robin Hood of England:"
for there would be still "young gentlemen" too glad to "flock to
him every day, and fleet the time carelessly, as they did in the
golden world." But, perhaps, the most decisive proof of the in-
herent interest of the lives of the Forest outlaws, is not that such
interest should simply still exist so many centuries after their death,
but that it should exist under the heavy load of mistakes and
absurdities that have so long surrounded and weighed it down : —
all honour to those whose unerring perceptions and stedfast faith
have kept that interest alive! The philosopher has once more con-
descended to learn from the people whom he should teach. What
they would not "willingly let die" under so many circumstances
adverse to preservation, he now, in our time, discovers is fit to live,
and forthwith satisfactorily proves what millions never doubted,
that Robin Hood was worthy of his reputation — that he was no thief,
or robber, no matter how these epithets might be qualified in Cam-
den's phrase of the " gentlest of thieves," or Major's of the " most
humane and prince of all robbers." Altogether the treatment during
late centuries of the story of Sherwood Forest has been at once
curious and instructive. The people wisely taking for granted the
essentials of that story as handed down to them from generation to
"feneration, and which described Robin Hood as their benefactor in
an a^e when heaven knows benefactors to them were few enouarh,
and which at the same time invested him with all the attributes on
which a people delight to dwell, as mirroring, in short, all their own
best qualities — hatred of oppression, courage, hospitality, generous
love, and deep piety; taking all this, we repeat, for granted, they
have not since troubled themselves to ask why they continued to
look upon his memory with such affectionate respect. On the other
hand, our historians, who were too philosophic (so called) to regard
such feelings as in themselves of any particular importance, if they
did not even think them decisive against the man who was their
object, never condescended to inquire as to his true character, but were
content to take their views of him on trust from some such epigram-
matic sounding sentences of the older writers as we have already
transcribed. And what is the result when they are suddenly
startled with inquiry by an eminent foreigner, Thierry, putting forth
a struigely favourable opinion of the political importance of Robin
Hood ? — why, that without referring to a single new or comparatively
inaccessible document, a writer in the Westminster Review for March,
1840 (to whom every lover of Robin Hood owes grateful acknow-
ledgments), has shown that there can be no reasonable doubt what-
ever that it is the patriot, and not the freebooter, whom his country-
men have so long delighted to honour. Of this more presently.

The severity of the old forest laws of England has become a by-
word, and no wonder, when we know t hat with the Conqueror a

Q 2

445— Great Seal of Kirg John.

454 — Magna o'harta and Us associations.

446.— Portrait of King John.— from his Tomb at Worcester!

447.— Irish Silver fenny of John.— From a specimen iu Brit Mm,

432.- Great Seal, &c, of King John.

53.— Tents.— From a MS. in Brit. Mua.

143 —King John.
116

440.— Queen Elinor,

£50 — William Longespee, Earl of Salisbury.

451. -William Marshall, 2arl of remUrui

437.— The Ankerwyke Yew.

4 jj.— Ma^ia Charta Island.

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Dreamble, the Forty-sixth Clause, and 'he Attestation.

456.— Kuaseffietle.

117

us

OLD ENGLAND.

Book II.

sovereign's paternal care for his subjects was understood to apply
to red deer, not to Saxon men ; and that accordingly, of the two,
the lives of the former alone were esteemed of any particular value.
But it was not the severity merely that was, after the Conquest,
introduced (whether into the spirit or into the letter of the forest
lavs is immaterial), but also the vast extent of fresh land then
afforested, and to which such laws were for the first time applied,
that gave rise to so much opposition and hatred between the
Norman conquerors and the Saxon forest inhabitants ; and that in
particular parts of England infused such continuous vigour into
the struggle commenced at the invasion, long after that struggle
had ceased elsewhere. The Conqueror is said to have possessed
is tins country no less than sixty-eight forests, and these even were
not enough ; so the afforesting process went on reign after reign,
till the awful shadow of Magna Charta began to pass more and
more frequently before royal eyes, producing first a check, and
then a retreat : dis-afforesting then began, and the forest laws
gradually underwent a mitigating process. But this was the work
of the nobility of England, and occupied the said nobility a long
time first to determine upon, and then to carry out: tiie people in
the interim could not afford to wait, but took the matter to a
certain extent into their own hands ; free bands roved the woods,
laughing at the king's laws, and killing and eating his deer, and
living a life of perfect immunity from punishment, partly through
bravery and address, and still more through the impenetrable cha-
racter of the woods that covered a large portion of the whole
country from the Trent to the Tyne. Among the more famous
of the early -leaders of such men were Adam Bell, Clym of the
Clougli, and William of Cloudesley (Fig. 479), the heroes of many
a northern ballad. But as time passed on, and Normans and
Saxons gradually amalgamated, and forgot their feuds of race in the
necessity for resisting the oppressions of class, such a life would
cease to be honourable ; liberty would become licence — resistance
to government rebellion. Assuredly the memory of Robin Hood
would not have been treasured as it was by our forefathers, if,
whilst the country was gradually progressing onwards to peace,
order, and justice, he had merely distinguished himself by the exer-
cise of excellent qualities for a very mischievous purpose. What
was it, then, that justified such a man in establishing an independent
government in the woods, after so much had been done towards the
establishment of a more regular authority, and after the people
generally of England had patiently submitted, and began in earnest
to seek an amelioration of their condition in a legal and peace-
able way? It was, in a word, the overthrow of the national party
of united Englishmen at the battle of Evesham in 1265, when
Simon de Montfort and a host of other leaders of the people fell ;
when the cause that had experienced so many vicissitudes, and
which had assumed so many different aspects at different times, was
apparently lost for ever ; and when the kingly power, unrestrained
by charters — since there were no longer armed bands to enforce
them — rioted in the degradation and ruin of all who had been
opposed to it. In a parliament called almost immediately after this
event which sat at Winchester, and consisted of course entirely of
nobles and knights who had been on the victors' side, the estates
of all who had adhered to the late Earl of Leicester (Montfort)
were confiscated at one fell swoop. It is important to mark what
then took place. " Such measures," writes Dr. Lingard, whose
sympathies are all on the royal side, " were not calculated to restore
the public tranquillity. The sufferers, prompted by revenge, or
compelled by want, had again recourse to the sword : the moun-
tains, forests, and morasses furnished them with places of retreat ;
and the flames of predatory warfare were kindled in most parts of
the kingdom. To reduce these partial, but successive insurrections,
occupied Prince Edward [himself one of the popular party till he
found popular restrictions were to be applied to his reign as well as
his father's] the better part of two years. He first compelled Simon
de Montfort [son of the late earl] and his associates, who had
sought an asylum in the Isle of Axholm, to submit to the award
which should be given by himself and the King of the Romans.
He next led his forces against the men of the Cinque Ports, who had
long been distinguished by their attachment to Leicester, and who
since his fall had by their piracies interrupted the commerce of the
narrow seas, and made prizes of all ships belonging to the king's sub-
jects. The capture of Winchelsea, which was carried by storm, taught
them to respect the authority of the sovereign, and their power by
sea made the prince desirous to recal them to their duty and attach
them to the crown. They swore fealty to Henry ; and in return
obtained a full pardon, and the confirmation of their privileges.
From the Cinque Ports Edward proceeded to Hampshire, which,
with Berkshire and Surrey, was ravaged by numerous banditti,

under the command of Adam Gordon, the most athletic man of the
age. They were surprised in a wood near Alton. The prince
engaged in single combat with their leader, wounded and unhorsed
him ; and then, in regard of his valour, granted him his pardon.
Still the garrison of Ken il worth [the Montfort fau.ily seat] con-
tinued to brave the royal power, and even added contumely to their
disobedience. To subdue these obstinate rebels, it wan necessary to
summon the chivalry of the kingdom : but the strength of the place
defied all the efforts of the assailants ; and the obstinacy of Hastings,
the governor, refused for six months every offer which was made to
him in the name of his sovereign." At length it became necessary
to offer something like terms of accommodation ; there was danger
in such long and successful resistance. So it was declared that
estates might be redeemed at certain rates of payment, the highest
being applied to the brave Kenilworth garrison, who were to pay
seven years' value. They submitted at last. Others still held out,
hoping perhaps to see a new nationul organization, and at all events
determined to refuse submission so long as they could. Such were
the men who maintained their independence for nearly two years in
the Isle of Ely ; above all, such were the men who maintained their
independence for a lifetime in the forest of Sherwood and the adja-
cent woodlands. Fordun, the Scottish historian, who travelled in
England in the fourteenth century diligently collecting materials for
his great work, which forms to this day our only authority for the
facts of Scottish history through a considerable period, states, im-
mediately after his notice of the battle of Evesham, and its conse-
quences to all who had been connected, on the losing side, with the
general stream of events to which that battle belongs, " Then from
among the dispossessed and the banished arose that most famous cut-
throat Robert Hood and Little John." If any one rises from the
perusal of the mighty events of the reign of Henry the Third with
the conviction that Simon de Montfort, to whom in all probability
England owes its borough representation, was a rebel instead of a
martyr, as the people called him, and that the words so freely used
by Dr. Lingard, of pirates, banditti, and rebels, were properly applied
to Simon deMontfort's followers, then also they may accept Fordun's
opinion that Robin Hood was a cut-throat — but not else ; they will
otherwise, like ourselves, accept his fact only, which is one of the
highest importance, and beyond dispute as to its correctness, how-
ever strangely neglected even by brother historians. Fordun's work
was continued and completed by his pupil, Bower, Abbot of St.
Colomb, who under the year 1266, noticing the further progress ui
the events that followed the battle of Evesham, says, " In this year
were obstinate hostilities carried on between the dispossessed barons
of England and the royalists, amongst whom Roger Mortimer occu-
pied the Marches of Wales, and John Duguil the Isle of Ely.
Robert Hood now lived an outlaw among the woodland copses and
thickets." It is hardly necessary after this to add that the one, and,
there is but one undoubtedly, ancient ballad relating to Robin Hood,
the ' Lytell Geste,' furnishes an additional corroboration of the most
satisfactory character ; it relates, as its title-page informs us, to
" Kynge Edwarde and Robyn Hode and Lytell Johan." We may
here observe that this ballad, one of the very finest in the language,
which for beauty and dramatic power is worthy of Chaucer him-
self, about whose time it was probably written, had shared Robin
Hood's own fate: that is, enjoyed a great deal of undiscriminating
and, therefore, worthless popularity. It has simply been looked on
as one of the Robin Hood ballads, Avhilst in fact it stands out as much
from all the others by its merits as by its antiquity, and its internal
evidence of being written by one who understood that on which he
wrote : which is much more than can be said for the ballad-doers of
later centuries, when Friar Tuck and Maid Marian first crept into
the foresters' company, when the gallant yeoman was created without
ceremony Earl of Huntingdon, and his own period put back a century
in order that he and the Lion Heart might hob and nob it together.
Here, then, we see the origin of Robin Hood's forest career ; we see
him — the yeoman — doing what the few leaders of the people, the
knights and barons whom Evesham had spared, everywhere did also,
resisting oppression; the difference being that they fought as soldiers
with a better soldier, Prince Edward, and failed ; and that he fought
as a forester in the woods he had probably been familiar with from
boyhood, and succeeded. Without exaggerating his political im-
portance, it is not too much to say that but for Edward's wisdom in
conceding substantially, when he became king, what he had shed so
h blood to resist whfle prince, that little handful of freemen in

muci

Sherwood forest might have become the nucleus of a new organi-
zation, destined once more to shake the isle to its very centre.
Edward prevented this result ; but, nevertheless, they found their
mission. They enabled their leader to become ': the representative
and the hero of a cause far older and deeper evfn than that in Thich

ClIAl'. I.J

OLD ENGLAND.

119

De Montfort had so nobly fallen; we mean the permanent protest
of the industrious classes of England against the galling injustice
and insulting immorality of that framework of English society, and
that fabric of ecclesiastical as well as civil authority, which the iron
arm of the Conquest had established. Under a system of general
oppression — based avowedly on the right of the strongest — the suf-
fering classes beheld, in a personage like Robert Hood, a sort of
particular Providence, which scattered a few grains of equity amid
all that monstrous mass of wrong. And when in his defensive
conflicts, the well-aimed missile entered the breast of some one of
their petty tyrants, though regarded by the ruling powers as an
arrow of malignant fate, it was hailed by the wrung and goaded
people as a shaft of protecting or avenging Heaven. The service
of such a chieftain, too, afforded a sure and tempting refuge for
every Anglo-Saxon serf who, strong in heart and in muscle, and
stung by intolerable insult, had flown in the face of his Norman owner
or his owner's bailiff — for every villain who, in defending the decen-
cies of his hearth, might have brained some brutal collector of the
poll-tax — for every rustic sportsman who had incurred death or
mutilation, the ferocious penalties of the Anglo-Norman forest laws,
by ' taking, killing, and eating deer ' " ('Westminster Review).

The forest of Sherwood, which formerly extended for thirty
miles northward from Nottingham, skirting the great north road
on both sides, was anciently divided into Thorney Wood and High
Forest ; and ir> one of these alone, the first and smallest, there were
comprised nineteen towns and villages, Nottingham included.
But this extensive sylvan district formed but a part of Robin
Hood's domains. Sherwood was but one of a scarcely interrupted
series of forests through which the outlaws roved at pleasure,
when change was desired, either for its own sake, or in order to
decline the too pressing attentions of the "Sheriff," as they called
the royal governor of Nottingham Castle and of the two counties,
Notts and Derby, who had supplanted the old elective officer — the
people's sheriff. Hence we trace their haunts to this day so far in
one direction as " Robin Hood's Chair," Wyn Hill, and his
"Stride" (Fig. 486) in Derbyshire; thence to "Robin Hood's
Bay," on the coast of Yorkshire, in another, with places between
innumerable. But the " woody and famous forest of Barnsdale,"
in Yorkshire, and Sherwood, appear to have been their principal
places of resort ; and what would not one give for a glimpse of the
scene as it then was, with these its famous actors moving about
among it ! There is little or nothing remaining in a sufficiently
wild state to tell us truly of the ancient royal forest of Sherwood.
The clearing process has been carried on extensively during the
last century and a half. Prior to that period the forest was full of
ancient trees — the road from Mansfield to Nottingham presented
one unbroken succession of green woods. The principal parts now
existing are the woods of Birkland and Bilhagh, where oaks of the
most giant growth and of the most remote antiquity are still to be
found : oaks against which Robin Hood himself may have leaned,
and which even then may have counted their age by centuries.
Such are the oaks in Welbeck Park (Fig. 480). Many of these
ancient trees are hollow through nearly the whole of their trunks,
but their tops and lateral branches still put forth the tender green
foliage regularly as the springs come round. Side by side with
the monarch oak we find the delicate silver-coated stems and
pendent branches of the lady of the woods ; and beautiful is the
contrast and the harmony. But everything wears a comparatively
cultivated aspect. We miss the prodigal luxuriance of a natural
forest, where every stage upward, from the sapling to the mightiest
growth, may be traced. We miss the picturesque accidents of
nature always to be found in such places — the ash key, for instance,
of which Gilpin speaks (Forest Scenery), rooting in a decayed
part of some old tree, germinating, sending down its roots, and
lifting up its branches till at last it rends its supporter and nourisher
to pieces, and appears itself standing in its place, stately ana
beautiful as that once appeared. Above all Ave miss the rich and
tangled undergrowth ; the climbing honeysuckle, the white and
black briony, and the clematis ; the prickly holly and the golden
furze, the heaths, the thistles, and the foxgloves with their purple
bells ; the bilberries, which for centuries were wont to be an
extraordinarily great profit and pleasure to the poor people who
gathered them (Thornton) ; the elders and willows of many a little
marshy nook ; all which, no doubt, once flourished in profusion
wherever they could find room to grow between the thickly set
trees, of which Camden says, referring to Sherwood, that their
" entangled branches were so twisted together, that they hardly
left room for a person to pass." It need excite little surprise that
the outlaws could defend themselves from all inroads upon such a
home The same writer adds, that in his time the woods were

much thinner, but still bred an infinite number of deer and stags
with lofty antlers. When Robin Hood hunted here, there would
be also the roe, the fox, the marten, the hare, the coney, as well as
the partridge, the quail, the rail, the pheasant, the woodcock,
the mallard, and the heron, to furnish sport or food. Even the
wolf himself may have been occasionally found in Sherwood, down
to the thirteenth century : in the manor of Mansfield Woodhouse a
parcel of land called Wolf huntlami was held so iate as Henry the
Sixth's time by the service of winding a horn to frighten away the
wolves in the forest of Sherwood. We must add to this rude
and imperfect sketch of the scene made for ever memorable
by Robin Hood's presence and achievements, that in another point
it would seem to have been expressly marked out by nature for
such romantic fame. Caverns are found in extraordinary numbers
through the forest. Those near Nottingham are supposed to have
given name both to the town and county ; the Saxon word Sno-
dengaham being interpreted to mean the Home of Caverns. There
are similar excavations in the face of a cliff near the Lene, west of
Nottingham Castle. Above all, there is a cave traditionally con-
nected with the great archer himself. This is a curious hollow
rock in the side of a hill near Newstead, known as Robin Hood's
Stable, but more likely from its aspect to have been his chapel. It
contains several passages and doorways cut in the Gothic style, out
of the solid rock ; and there are peculiar little hollows in the wall,
which might hove been intended for holy water. Robin Hood's
devotion is attested in a thousand ways by tradition, ballad, and
sober history. Thus the ' Ly tell Geste' observes: — •

A good manor than had Robyn

In londe where that ho were,
Every daye or lie would dyn;.',

Three messes woldo be here.

Fordun's illustration of Robin Hood's piety is an exceedingly
interesting anecdote, and one that assuredly would not have found
its way into his work unless from his full conviction of its trutii.
" Once upon a time, in Barnsdale, where he was avoiding the wrath
of the Kinfr and the rage of the Prince, while engaged in verv
devoutly hearing mass, as he was wont to do, nor would he interrupt
the service for any occasion — one day, I say, while so at mass, it
happened that a certain Viscount [the sheriff or governor, no doubt,
before mentioned], and other officers of the King, who had often
before molested him, were seeking after him in that most retired
woodland spot wherein he was thus occupied. Those of his men
who first discovered this pursuit, came and entreated him to fly with
all speed ; but this, from reverence for the consecrated host, which
he was then most devoutly adoring, he absolutely refused to do.
While the rest of his people were trembling for fear of death, Robert
alone, confiding in Him whom he fearlessly worshipped, with the
very few whom he had then beside him, encountered his enemies,
overcame them with ease, was enriched by their spoils and ransom,
and was thus induced to hold ministers of the church and masses in
greater veneration than ever, as mindful of the common saying,

" ' God hears the man that often hears the mass.' "

The life in the forest must indeed have been steeped in joyous
excitement. No doubt it had its disadvantages. Winter flaws in
such a scene would not be pleasant. Agues might be apt occasion-
ally to make their appearance. One feels something of a shivering
sensation as we wonder,

When they did hear

The rain and wind beat dark December, how
In that their pinching cave they could discourse
The freezing hours away.

Yet even the rigours of the season might give new zest to the
general enjoyment of forest life ; we may imagine one of the band
singing in some such words as those of Amiens :—

Under the greenwood tree
Who loves to lie with me,
And tune his merry note
Unto the sweet bird's throat,
Come hither, come hither, come hither :
Here shall he see
No enemy
But winter and rough weather.

And that very thought would ensure such enemies, when they did
come, a genial and manly reception. But reverse the picture, and
what a world of sunshine, and green leaves, and flickering lights
and shadows break in upon us— excitement in the chace, whether
they follow the deer (Figs. 485 and 487), or were themselves
followed by the sheriff, through bush and brake, over bog ana
quagmire — of enjoyment in their shooting and wrestling matches

402.— 1'risou, temp. John.

100. — liuglioli KUips, temp. John.

. i^hjlMidkM^M

M

aJ

tlfc |o!n

463.— Altar at St. Edmunckbury.

-CI. — Carriages, tem£. John.

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/

461. — Room of State, temp. John,

I !l

4C5. — Tomb of King Ju! n Worcester.

1 \t

400. — Rolls of Records.

)&-\ 1

Ml

10

* J

in

12

13

T

fe

iGT.— Sipas.

ii

<P

,4

¥

5

468.— Leathern l'uucb.

.400.— Snippet

470.— Hanaper.

s

H
1

472.— '.log Almanac.

\F

No. 16.

121

122

OLD ENGLAND.

[Book IL

(Fig. 484), in their sword-fights (Fig. 483), and sword-dances
(Fi»-. 489) ; in their visits to all the rustic wakes and feasts of the
neighbourhood, where they would be received as the most welcome
of guests. The variety of the life in the forest must have been
endless. Now the outlaws would be visited by the wandering
minstrels, coming thither to amuse them with old ballads, and to
gather a rich harvest of materials for new ones, that should be list-
ened to with the deepest interest and delight all England through,
not only while the authors recited them, but for centuries after the
very names of such authors were forgotten. The legitimate poet-
minstrel would be followed by the humbler gleeman, forming one
of a band of revellers (Fig. 490), in which would be comprised a
taborer, a bagpiper, and dancers or tumblers, and who, tempted by
the well-known liberality of the foresters, would penetrate the thick
wood to find them. And great would be the applause at their
humorous dances and accompanying songs, at their balancings and
tumblings ; wonderful, almost too wonderful to be produced without
the aid of evil spirits, would seem their sleight-of-hand tricks. At
another time there would be suddenly heard echoing through the
forest glades the sounds of strange bugles from strange hunters.
Their rich apparel shows them to be of no ordinary rank. How dare
they then intrude upon the forest king ? Nay, there is not any
danger. Are there not lady-hunters (Fig. 481) among the company ?
and what says the ballad, the truth of which every one attests? —

Robyn loved one dere lady,

For doute of dedely syune ;
Wolde he never do company harmo

That any woman was ynne.

So their husbands, brothers, sons, and fathers hunt freely through
Sherwood in their company, safe from the sudden arrow, ay, though
even the hated sheriff himself be among them. But there were
occasions when the forest would present a much more extraordinary
scene than any we have yet referred to. For scores of miles around,
what preparations are there not made when the words " Robin Hood's
Fair" spread from mouth to mouth, and the time and place of it
being held become known ! Thither would resort all the yeomen
and yeomen's wives of the district, each one hoping to get a " Robin
Hood's pennyworth," as the well-understood phrase went, in some
courtepy or hood, in handkerchiefs telling their goodness by
their weight, in hats, boots or shoes, the spoil of some recent cam-
paign, and bespeaking their general excellence from the known
quality of their recent owners. Thither would resort the emissaries
of more than one priory and respectable monastery, to look after
some richly-illuminated Missal or MS. that they had heard were
among the good things of the fair, or to execute the High Cellarer's
commission to purchase any rare spices that might be offered.
Knightly messengers too would not be wanting, coming thither to
look after choice weapons, or trinkets, or weighty chains of gold :
perhaps even the very men who had been despoiled, and whose
treasures had contributed so largely to the " fair," would be send-
ing to it, to purchase silently back some favourite token at a trifling-
price, hopeless of regaining it by any other mode. Of course the
Jews would flock to Sherwood on such occasions from any and all
distances. And as the fair proceeded, if any quarrels took place
between the buyers and sellers, a Jew would be sure to be concerned.
Even whilst he laughed in his heart at the absurd price he was to
give for the rich satin vest, or the piece of cloth of gold of such
rare beauty that the forester was measuring with his long bow,
generally of his own height, for a yard, and even then skippino-
two or three inches between each admeasurement, the Jew would
be sure to be haggling to lower the price or to be increasing the
quantity ; till reminded that he was not dealing with the most patient
as well as with the most liberal of men, by a different application
of the tough yew. Then the adventures of the forest ! — indigenous
and luxuriant as its bilberries ; how they give a seasoning as it
were, to the general conjunction of life in the forest, and prevented
the possibility of its ever being felt as " weary, stale, flat, and un-
profitable!" Were recruits wanted? — there was a pretty opening
for adventure in seeking them. They must be men of mark or
likelihood who can alone be enlisted into brave Robin's band and
severe accordingly were the tests applied. In order to prove their
courage, for instance, it seems from the later ballads, it was quite
indispensable that they should have the best of it with some veteran
forester, either in shooting with the bow, or playfully breaking a
crown with the quarter-staff, or even by occasionally beatino- their
antagonists when contending with inadequate weapons.

Robin Hood himself should appear from these authorities to have
been almost as famous for his defeats, as other heroes for their
victories. We suspect that what little portion of truth there is in

the tradition thus incorporated into tho ballads, may be explained
by imagining a little ruse on his part in these recruiting expedi-
tions. When he met with some gallant dare-devil whom he de«
sired to include among his troops, what better method could he
devise than to appear to be beaten by him after a downright good
struggle ? He to beat Robin Hood ! It was certainly the most
exquisite and irresistible of compliments. The promise of a sergeant
in later days to make the gaping rustic commander-in-chief was
nothing to it. But suppose we now look at two or three of the
more interesting adventures which are recorded in the ' Lytell
Geste ' as having actually taken place, and which, be it observed,
may possibly be as true, bating a little here and there for the
poetical luxuriance of the author, as if Fordun had related them :
ballads in the early ages ivere histories. In one part of this poem
we find a story of the most interesting character, and told with
extraordinary spirit, discrimination of character, and dramatic effect.
Whilst Little John, Scathelock (the Scarlet of a later time), and
Much the Miller's son, were one day watching in the forest, they
beheld a knight riding along: —

All dreari then was his semblaunte,

And lytell was his pride ;
Hys one fote in the sterope strode,

The other waved besyde.

Hys hodo hangynge over hys eyen two,

He rode in symple aray ;
A soryer man than he was one

Rode never in sonaers day,

The outlaws courteously accost and surprise him with the informa-
tion that their master has been waiting for him, fasting three hours ;
Robin Hood, it appears, having an objection to sit down to dinner
till he can satisfy himself he has earned it, by finding strangers to
sit down with him — and pay the bill. Having " washed," they
dine : —

Brcde and wyne they had ynough,
And nombles [entrails] of the deer ;

Swannes and fesauntes they had full good,
And foules of the revere :

There fayled never so lytell a byrde
That ever was bred on brere.

After dinner the Knight thanks his host for his entertainment, but
Robin hints that thanks are not enough. The Knight replies that he
has nothing in his coffers that he can for shame offer — that, in short,
his whole stock consists of ten shillings. Upon this Robin bids
Little John examine the coffers to see if the statement be true (a
favourite mode with Robin of judging of the character of his
visitors), and informs the Knight at the same time that, if he really
have no more, more he will lend him.

" What tydyngc, Johan?" — sayed Robyn :
" Syr, the Knyght is trewe enough."

The great outlaw is now evidently interested; and, with mingled
delicacy and frankness, inquires as to the cause of the Knight's low
estate, fearing that it implies some wrong doing on his part. It
comes out at last that his son has killed a " Knyght of Lancastshyre "
in the tournament, and that, to defend him " in his right," he has
sold all his own goods, and pledged his lands unto the Abbot of St.
Mary's, York ; the day is now nearly arrived, and he is not merely
unable to redeem them before too late, but well nigh penniless into
the bargain. We need hardly solicit attention to the mingled pathos
and beauty of what follows : —

" What is the somme?" sayd Robyn ;

" Trouthe then tell thou me.''
" Syr," he sayd, "foure hondred ponnde,

The Abbot tolde it to me."

" Now, and thou lese thy londe," sayd Robyn,

"What shall fall of the?"
" Hastely I wyll me buske," sayde the Knyght,

" Over the salt see ;

" And se where Cryst was quycke and deed

On the mount of Calvarfe.
Farewell, frende, and have good day,

It may noo better be "

Tears fell out of his eyen two,

He wolde have gone his waye —
' Farewell, frendes, and have good day ;

I ne have more to pay."

Chap. I.J

OLD ENGLAND

123

"Where bo thy frendes?" sayde Kobyn.

" Syr, never one wyll me know ;
Whyle I was ryche enow at home,

Grcto bost then wolde they bio .ve.

" And now they renne awaye fro me,

As bestes on a rowo ;
They take no more heed of me

Then they me never sawe."

For ruthe then wepte Lytell Johan,

Scathelocke and Much in fere [in company] ;
" Fyll of the best wyne," sayd Robyn,
" For here is a symple chere."

Before many hours the Knight was pursuing his way with a full
pocket and a full heart to redeem his lands. We must follow him
to York. The day of payment has arrived. The chief officers of
the Abbey are in a state of high excitement, on account of the value
of the estates that will be theirs at nightfall if the Knight comes
not with the redemption money. The Abbot cannot repress his
anticipations : —

" But he come this ylko day,
Dysheryte shall he be."

The Prior endeavours to befriend the absent Knight, but is answered
impatiently —

" Thou art euer in my berde," sayde the Abbot,
" By God and Saynt Richardc."

And then bursts in a " fat-headed monk," the High Cellarer, with
the exulting exclamation —

" He is dede or hanged," 6ayd the monkc,

" By God that bought me dere ;
And we shall have to spende in this place

Foure hondred pounde by yere."

To make all sure, the Abbot has managed to have the assist-
ance of the High Justicer of England on the occasion by the usual
mode of persuasion, a bribe : and is just beginning to receive his
congratulations when the Knight arrives at the gate. But he
appears in "symple wedes," and the alarm raised by his appearance
soon subsides as he speaks : — ■

" Do gladly, Syr Abbot," sayd the Knyght ;

" I am come to holde my day."
The iyrst word the Abbot spoke, —

" Hast thou brought my pay ?"

" Not one peny," sayde the Knyght,

" By God that maked me."
" Thou art a shrewed dettour," sayd the Abbot ;

"Syr Justyce, drynhe to me."

The Knight tries to move his pity, but in vain ; and after some
further passages between him and the Abbot, conceived and ex-
pressed in the finest dramatic spirit, the truth comes out in answer
to a proposition from the Justice that the Abbot shall give two
hundred pounds more to keep the land in peace ; the Knight then
suddenly astounds the whole party by producing the four hundred
pounds.

" Have here thy golde, Syr Abbot," sayd the Knyght,
" Which that thou lentest me ;
Haddest thou ben cuiteys at my comynge,
Kewarde sholdest thou have be."

The Abbot sat styll, and ete no more

For all his ryall [royal] chere ;
He cast his hede on his sholder,

And fast began to stare.

" Take [give] mo my golde agayne," sayd the Abbot,

" Syr Justyce, that I toke the."
" Not a peny," sayd the Justyce,

" By God that dyed on a tree."

A twelvemonth afterwards, and on the very day that the Knight
has fixed for repaying Robin Hood, a magnificent procession of
ecclesiastics and ecclesiastical retainers is passing through the
forest; and being stopped by the outlaws, who should be at the
head of the whole but our friend the fat-headed monk, the Hi"-h
Cellarer of St. Mary, York ! Now Robin Hood's security, the only
one that he would take from the Knight, had been that of the
Virgin— what more natural than that he should think the High
Cellarer of the Virgin's own house at York had come to pay him his
four hundred pounds ! It is in vain the holy man denies that he

has come for any such purpose. At last, driven to his shifts, he
ventures a lie when the actual state of his coffers is inquired into.
His return, in official language, is twenty marks. Robin is very
reasonable, and says, if there really be no more, not a peiny of it
will be meddled with.

Lytell Johan spred his mantell downo

As ho had done before,
And he tolde out of the monkes male

Eyght hundreth pounde and more.

No wonder that Robin exclaims —

Monk, what told I thee?
Our Lady is the trewest woman
That ever yet founde I me.

All this is told with a more exquisite humour than our own
partial extracts can do justice to. Anon a second, and to archer
eyes still more attractive pageant, appears. It is the good and
grateful Knight at the head of a hundred men clothed in white and
red, and bearing as a present to the foresters a hundred bows of a
quality to delight even such connoisseurs in the weapon, with a
hundred sheaves of arrows, with heads burnished full bright, every
arrow an ell long, y-dight with peacock plumes, and y-nocked with
silver. The Knight had been detained on his way ; the sun was
down ; the hour of payment had passed when he arrived at the
trysting-tree. His excuse was soon made to the generous outlaw,
lie had stayed to help a poor yeoman who was suffering oppression.
The debt was forgiven ; the monks had paid it doubly.

The ballads of Robin Hood which, century after century, followed!
the 'Lytell Geste ' are, at any rate, evidences of the deep hold
which this story of wild adventure, and of the justice of the stron"
hand, long retained upon the popular mind. We have already men-
tioned how unequal these later productions are to that ancient ballad
which professes to tell the doings of 'Kjnge Edwarde and Robin
Hode and Lytell Johan.' Many of these ballads were reprinted by
a scrupulous antiquary, Rit.-on ; and most of them are to be found
in some collection with which the lovers of early poetry are familiar.
A very neat abridgment of some of the more striking of these
stories was published in ' The Penny Magazine,' in a series of papers-
written by the late Mr. Allan Cunningham. To these sources we
may refer our readers. But as the ballad poetry of a country is
amongst the most curious of its records— as the ballads of ' Old
England,' even though they may have been written in the reign of
Elizabeth, or even later, reflect the traditions of the people, and in
many cases are founded upon more ancient compositions that have
perished, — we shall, in each period into which our work is divided,
present one or two ballads entire, without any very exact regard to
the date of their publication, provided they bear upon the events-
and manners of the age of which we are treating.

The first ballad which we select for this purpose is from a collec-
tion printed in 1G07, called ' Strange Histories, or Songes and
Sonets, of Kings, Princes, Dukes, Lordes, Ladyes, Knights, and
Gentlemen ; very pleasant either to be read or songe, and a most
excellent warning for all estates.' Of this curious book there are
only two original copies known to be in existence ; but it has been
recently reprinted by the Percy Society. The principal author of
these poems is held to have been Thomas Deloney, who acquired
great popularity by his books for the people in the end of the six-
teenth century, and is spoken of by a contemporary as " the ballad-
ing silk-weaver." The subject of the ballad which we now print
is an interesting event connected with the Norman conquest. We
modernize the orthography, for there is no advantage in retaining,
the antique modes of spelling when they have no reference to the-
date of a production, or to the peculiarities of its metre. The-
'Lytell Geste' could not be thus modernized with the same pro-
priety.

STRANGE HISTORIES.

The Valiant Courage and Policy of the Kentishmen icith Long Tails, icheriby .
they kept their Ancient Laws and Customs, which William the Conquer of
sought to take from them.

When as the Duke of Normandy,

With glistering spear and shield,
Had enterod into fair England,

And foil'd his foes in field,
On Christinas Day in solemn sort,

Th n was he crowned here
By Albert, Archbishop of York,

With many a noble Peer.

R 2

^SN*. /

&«»,i*'"A

477. — Robin Hood, Scarlet, and Ju-bn.

478.— Robin Hood and the 'Tanner.— Quarter-staff. J '

475.— Yew-tree at Fountains Abbey, Ripon, Yorkshire*

124

481.-Ladies Hunting Deer. (Bagel MS. 2 B. vii.)

482.- Cross-bow Shooting at small Birds. (Lioyal MS, 2 B. vii.:

. X J&i

!

i79.-William of Cloudeslie ai d i is Family in Englewood Forest.

V •"'

-1S3.— Sword-fight, (Royal.MS. £C E. C.)

484.— Wrestling. (Royal MS. 2 B. vii.^j

Duke's Walking-stick,

gs- . . : ■--•• >-^;

4S0.-Oaks in Welbeck Park.

12n

OLD ENGLAND.

[Book 11

Which being dono, he changed quite

The custom of this land,
And puuish'd such as daily sought

His statutes to withstand :
And many cities he subdued,

Fair London with the rest ;
Cut Kent did still withstand his force,

Which did his laws detest.

To Dover then he took his way

The Castle down to fling,
Which Arviragus builded there,

The noble Briton King.
Which when tho brave Archbishop bold

Of Canterbury knew,
The Abbot of St. Austin's eke,

With all their gallant crew.

They set themselves in armour bright

These mischiefs to prevent,
With all the yeomen brave and boid

That were in fruitful Kent.
At Canterbury they did meet

Upon a certain day,
With sword and spear, with bill and bow,

And stopp'd the Conqueror's way.

' Let us not live like bondmen poor

To Frenchmen in their pride,
But keep our ancient liberty,

What chance soe'er betide ;
And rather die in bloody field,

la manlike courage press'd,
Than to endure the servile yoke

Which we so much detest."

Thus did the Kentish commons cry

Unto their leaders still,
And so march'd forth in warlike sort,

And stand on Swanscombe Hill ;
Where in tho woods they hid themselves

Under the shady green,
Thereby to get them vantage good

Of all their foes unseen.

And for the Conqueror's coming there

They privily laid wait,
And thereby suddenly appall'd

His lofty high conceit :
For when they spied his approach,

In place as they did stand,
Then march'd they to hem him in,

Each one a bough in hand.

So that unto the Conqueror's sight,

Amazed as he stood,
They seemed to be a walking grove,

Or else a moving wood.
The shape of men he could not see,

The boughs did hide them so ;
And now his heart for fear did quake

To see a forest go.

Before, behind, and on each side,

As he did cast his eye,
He spied these woods with sober pace

Approach to him full nigh.
But when the Kentishmen had thus

Enclos'd the Conqueror round,
Most suddenly they drew their swords.

And threw the boughs to ground.

Their banners they displayed in sight.

Their trumpets sound a charge ;
Their rattling drums strike up alarm,

Their troops stretch out at large.
The Conqueror with all his train

Were hercat sore aghast,
And most in peril when he thought

All peril had been past.

Unto the Kentishmen lie sent

The cause to understand,
For what intent and for what cause

They took this war in hand ?
To whom they made this short reply :

" For liberty we fight,
And to enjoy King Edward's laws,

The which we hold our riffht"

"Then," said the dreadful Conqueror,

" You shall have what you will.
Your ancient customs and your law.

So that you will be still ;
And each thing else that you will crave

With reason at my hand,
So you will but acknowledge mo

Chief king of fair England."

The Kentishmen agreed hereon,

And laid their arms aside,
And by this means King Edward's laws

In Kent doth still abide :
And in no place in England else

Those customs do remain,
Which they by manly policy

Did of Duke William gain.

In the possession of Dr. Percy, the accomplished editor of
' Reliques of Ancient English Poetry,' was an ancient ballad entitled
' King John and the Bishop of Canterbury.' The following version
of this ballad, in which are some lines found in the more ancient
copy, is supposed to have been written or adapted in the time of
James I. : —

KING JOHN AND THE ABBOT OF CANTERBURY

An ancient story I'll tell you anon,
Of a notable prince that was called King John ;
And he ruled England with main and with might —
For he did great wrong, and maintained little right

And I'll tell you a story — a story so merry —
Concerning the Abbot of Canterbury :
How for his housekeeping, and high renown.
They rode post for him to fair London town.

An hundred men the King did hear say,
The Abbot kept in his house every day ;
And fifty gold chains, without any doubt,
In velvet coats waited the Abbot about.

How now ! Father Abbot, I hear it of thee,
Thou keepest a far better house than me :
And for thy housekeeping, and high renown,
I fear thou work'st treason against my crown.

My Liege, quoth the Abbot, I woidd it were known,
I never spend nothing but what is my own :
And I trust your Grace will do me no decre,
For spending my own true-gotten gear.

Yes, yes, — quoth he, — Abbot, thy fault it is high,
And now for tho same thou needest must die ;
For except thou canst answer me questions three.
Thy head shall be smitten from thy body.

And first, — quo' tho King, — when I'm in this stead
With my crown of gold so fair on my head,
Among all my liegemen so noble of birth,
Thou must tell me, to one penny, what I am wortk

Secondly, tell me, without any doubt,
How soon I may ride the whole world about ;
And at the third question thou must not shrink,
But tell me here truly, what I do think.

O, these are hard questions for my shallow wit,
Nor I cannot answer your Grace as yet ;
But if you will give me but three weeks' spac<*
I'll do my endeavour to answer your Grace.

Now three weeks' space to thee I will give,
And that is the longest time thou hast to live ;
For if thou dost not answer my questions three,
T! y lands and thy livings are forfeit to me.

Away rode the Abbot, all sad at that word,
And he rode to Cambridge and Oxenford ;
But never a Doctor there was so wise,
That could, with his learning, an answer devise.

Then home rode the Abbot, of comfort so cold.
And he met his shepherd a-going to fold ;
How now ! my Lord Abbot, you are welcome home
What news do you bring us from good King John?

Chap. I.]

OLD ENGLAND.

127

Sad news, sad news, shepherd, I must give, —
That I have but three days more to live :
For if I do not answer him questions three,
My head will be smitten from my body.

The first is, to tell him, there in that stead,
With his crown of gold so fair on his head,
Anv.ng all hi3 liegemen so noblo of birth.
To witliin one peany uf what ho is worth.

The second, to tell him, without any doubt,
How soon he may ride this whole world about ;
And at the third question 1 must not shrink,
But tell him there truly what he does think.

Now cheer up, Sir Abbot — did you never hear yet,
That a fool he may learn a wiso man wit?
Lend me horse, and serving-men, and your apparel,
And I'll ride to London, to answer your quarrel.

Nay, frown not, if it hath been told unto me,
I am like your Lordship as ever may be ;
And if you will but lend mo your gown,
Thero is none shall know us at fair London town.

Now horses and serving-men thou shalt have,
With sumptuous array, most gallant and brave,—
With crosier and m'tro, and rochet and cope-
Pit to appear 'foro our father the Pope.

Now welcome, Sir Abbot, the King he did say,
'Tis well thou'rt come back to keep thy day :
For, and if thou canst answer my questions threo
Thy life and thy living both saved shall be.

And first, when thou seest me here in this stead.
With my crown of gold so fair on my head.

Among all my liegemen so noblo of birth.
Tell me, to one penny, what I am worth.

For thirty pence Our Saviour *p*s sold
Among the false Jews, as I have been told,
And twenty-nine is tho worth of thee.
For I think thou art one penny worser than he.

The King he laughed, and swore by St. Bittel,
I did not think I had been worth so little :
Now, secondly, tell me, without any doubt.
How soon I may ride this whole world about.

You must rise with tho sun, and rido with tho same.
Until tho next morning ho riseth again,
And then your Grace need not make any doubt
Cut in twenty-four hours you will ride it about.

The King he laughed, and swore by St. Jonc,
I did not think it could be done so soon :
Now from the third question thou must not shrink.
But tell me here truly what I do think.

Yea, that shall I do and make your Grace merry —
You think Tm tlie Abbot of Canterbury ;
But I'm his poor shepherd, as plain you may see,
That am como to beg pardon for him and for mo.

The King he laughed, and swore by the mass,
I will make thee Lord Abbot this day in his place
Now stay, my liege, be not in such speed,
For alack! I can neither write nor read.

Four nobles a week, then, I will give thee,
For this merry jest thou hast shown unto mo ;
And tell the old Abbot when thou comest home,
Thou hast brought him a pardon from good King Joha.

WSSf,

^»

WSSfvSggm ! ISM

/

Robin H Al^ Well, near.Doncaster.

485. — Robin Hood and L ttle John.

486 —Robin Hood's Stride, or Mock Beggar's Hall, near BurchoveniuToulgrave,De;

439.— Sword Dance. (Royal MS. 14 E. iii.j

490.-Country Revel. (Royal MS. 2 B. 1.)

48?,— The Parliament Oak in Clipstone Turk.

48V.—" Will Scarlet, he did kill a back."

228

491-JWCartluisuiii.

492.— A Benedictii.e

•19?.— A Cistercian,

;er, Bishop of Sarum, 1293.
Salisbury Catbedral.

SP^Si^WSS^

4 i5. — Andrew, Abbot of Peter-
borough, H9X— Peterborough
Cathedral,

497 '-Costume of an English Mitred Abbot.

493.— Costume cf an Ecg'.ii's Abbess.

tee of the errly Abbots of Weet-
j'.er.— Cloisters, Westminster.

No. 17.

499.— Vision of Henry I. ; an unci' nt drawing showing the Costume of the Clergy-

»C0.— Qi\ F.Idiop of Bayeux, pronouncing ^
' l'astora! Blessing.

J2<?

130

OLD ENGLAND.

I Book LI

CHAPTER II.— ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES

HE first century of the Nor-
man rule in England has left
behind it more durable monu-
ments of the earnest devotion
of the mixed races of the
country than any subsequent
period of our history. The
ecclesiastical distribution of
England was scarcely altered
from the time of Henry I. to
that of Henry VIII. The
Conqueror found the arch-
bishoprics of Canterbury and
York established, as well as
the following bishoprics: — Durham, London, Winchester, Ro-
chester, Chichester, Salisbury, Exeter, Wells, Worcester, Hereford,
Coventry, Lincoln, Thetford. Norwich became the see of the
bishop of Thetford in 1088. The see of Ely was founded in 1109,
and that of Carlisle in 1133. The governing power of the church
thus remained for four centuries, till Henry VIII., in 1541,
founded the sees of Bristol, Gloucester, Oxford, Peterborough, and
Chester, portions of the older dioceses being taken to form the see
of each new bishop. The Rev. Joseph Hunter, in his excellent
' Introduction to the Valor Ecclesiasticus of King Henry VIII.,'
says, <: It is indeed a just subject of wonder that in the first century
after the Conquest so many thousand of parish churches should
have been erected, as if by simultaneous effort, in every part of the
land, while at the same time spacious and magnificent edifices were
arising in every diocese to be the seats of the bishops and arch-
bishops, or the scenes of the perpetual services of the inhabitants
of the cloister. Saxon piety had done much, perhaps more than
we can collect from the pages of Domesday : but it is rather to the
Normans than to the Saxons that we are to attribute the great mul-
titude of parish churches existing at so remote an era; and a truly
wise and benevolent exertion of Christian piety the erection of
them must be regarded." To describe, with anything like minute-
ness of detail, any large proportion of these ecclesiastical antiquities,
would carry us far beyond the proper object of this work; but we
shall endeavour in this chapter, and in those of subsequent periods,
to present to our readers some of the more remarkable of these
interesting objects, whether we regard their beauty and magnifi-
cence, or the circumstances connected with their foundation and
history. Our series of cathedrals will, however, be complete.
Mr. Hunter, speaking of the historical uses of the ' Valor Eccle-
siasticus ' (which has been printed in six large folio volumes, under
the direction of the Record Commissioners), says, that in this
record " We at once see not only the ancient extent and amount of
that provision which was made by the piety of the English nation
for the spiritual edification of the people by the erection of churches
and chapels for the decent performance of the simple and touching
ordinances of the Christian religion, but how large a proportion
had been saved from private appropriation of the produce of the
soil, and how much had subsequently been given to form a public
fund, accessible to all, out of which might be supported an order of
cultivated and more enlightened men dispersed through society,
and by means of which blessings incalculable might be spread
amongst the whole community. If there were spots or extrava-
gancies, yet on the whole it is a pleasing as well as a splendid
spectacle, especially if we look with minute observation into any
portion of the Record, and compare it with a map which shows the
distribution of population in those times over the island, and then
observe how religion had pursued man even to his remotest abodes,
and was present among the most rugged dwellers in the hills and
wilderness of the land, softening and humanizing their hearts.

But the Record does not stop here. It presents us with

s, view of those most gorgeous establishments where the service of
the Most High was conducted in the magnificent structures which
<=!ill nxist amongst us, with a great array of priests, and all the

pomp of which acts of devotion admit ; and of the abbeys and other
monasteries, now but ruined edifices, where resided the sons and
daughters of an austerer piety, and where the services were scarcely
ever suspended."

Who can turn over such a record as this, or dwell upon the
minuter descriptions of our country histories, without feeling there
was a spirit at work in those ages which is now comparatively cold
and lifeless ? Who can lift up his eyes to the pinnacles and towers,
or stand beneath the vaulted roof of any one of the noble cathedrals
and minsters that were chiefly raised up during this early period —
who can rest, even for a brief hour, amidst the solitude of some
ruined abbey, as affecting in its decay as it was imposing in its
splendour — who even can look upon the ponderous columns, the
quaint carvings not without their symbolical meanings, the solidity
which proclaims that those who thus built knew that the principle
through which theyr built must endure — who can look upon such
things without feeling that there was something higher and purer
working in the general mind of the people than that which has pro-
duced the hideous painted and whitewashed parallelograms that we
have raised up and called churches in these our days? We shall
not get better things by the mere copying of the antique models by-
line and compass. When the spirit which created our early eccle-
siastical architecture has once more penetrated into the hearts of
the people ; when it shall be held, even upon principles of utility,
that man's cravings after the eternal and the infinite are to be as
much provided and cared for as his demands for food and raiment ;
then the tendencies of society will not be wholly exhibited in the
perfection of mechanical contrivance, in rapidity of communication,
in never-ceasing excitements to toil without enjoyment. When the
double nature of man is understood and cared for, Ave may again
raise up monuments of piety which those who come five hundred
years after us will preserve in a better spirit than we have kept up
many of those monuments which were left to us by those who did
not build solely for their own little day.

In entering upon the large subject of our ecclesiastical antiquities,
'we have found it almost impossible to attempt any systematic
division. Our architecture from the period of the Conquest is
generally divided into Anglo-Norman, Early English, Decorative,
and Perpendicular. We shall endeavour, as far as we can, to make
our chronological arrangement suit these broad distinctions. But
as there is scarcely an important building remaining that does not
exhibit more than one of these characteristics, and as we cannot
return again and again to the same building, we must be content to
classify them according to their main characteristics. For example,
Canterbury, and Lincoln, and Durham have portions of the earlier
styles still remaining in them, and these naturally find a place in the
present Book ; but our engravings and descriptions must necessarily
include the other styles with which these edifices abound. A little
familiarity with the general principles of ecclesiastical architecture
will soon enable the reader to mark what belongs to one period and
what to another ; and, without going into professional technicalities,
we shall incidentally endeavour to assist those who really desire to
study the subject. Looking in the same way, not to the date of
the foundation, but to the main characteristics of the existing edifice,
we shall be enabled to disperse our ecclesiastical materials through
some of the subsequent periods into which our little work is divided,
not attempting great precision, but something like chronological
order. For example, we know that the present Westminster Abbey-
was not built till the time of Henry the Third, and we therefore
postpone our notice of Westminster Abbey, although it was founded
by Edward the Confessor, to the period which succeeds the reign of
John. Other buildings, such as Salisbury Cathedral, St. George's
Chapel at Windsor, and King's College Chapel at Cambridge, being
the work of one age, and probably of one architect, do not involve
the same chronological difficulties that, a cathedral presents which
has been raised up by the munificence of bishop after bishop, the
choir being the work of one age, the nave of another, the transepts
of another, each age endeavouring at some higher perfection. If we

^HAP. IT.1

OLD ENGLAND

131

are sometimes betrayed into anachronisms, those who have studied
this large subject scientifically will, we trust, yield us their excuse.

The noblest ecclesiastical edifices which still remain to us, as well
as the ruins which are spread throughout the land, were connected
with the establishments of those who lived under the monastic rule.
This will be incidentally seen, whether we describe a cathedral, with
all its present establishment of bishop, dean, and chapter, or a ruined
abbey, whose ivy-covered columns lie broken on the floor, where
worshippers have knelt, generation after generation, dreaming not
that in a few centuries the bat and the owl would usurp their places.
We shall proceed at once to one of the most ancient and splendid
of these forsaken _ places — Glastonbury. We shall not here enter
upon any minute description of the engravings numbered 491 to
511, which precede the view of that celebrated abbey. Those
engravings represent the costume of the monastic orders of that
early period, as well as some specimens of the more ancient fonts and
other matters connected with the offices of the church. We shall
have to refer to these more particularly as we proceed.

Glastonbury is one of those few remaining towns in England
which seem to preserve, in spite of decay and innovation, a kind of
grateful evidence of the people and the institutions from whence
their former importance was derived. No one can pass through its
streets without having strongly impressed upon his mind the
recollections of the famous monastery of Glastonbury, or without
seeing how magnificent an establishment must have been planted
here, when the very roots, centuries after its destruction, still arrest
the attention at every step by their magnitude and apparently almost
indestructible character. We have hardly left behind us the marshy
flats that surround and nearly insulate the town (whence the old
British name of the Glassy Island), and ascended the eminence upon
which it stands, before we perceive that almost every other building
has been either constructed, in modern times, out of stone, quarried
from some architectural ruins, or is in itself a direct remain of the
foundation from whence the plunder has been derived ; in other
words, some dependency of the monastery. The George Inn is not
only one of these, but preserves its old character ; it was, from the
earliest times, a house of accommodation for the pilgrims and others
visiting Glastonbury, As we advance we arrive at a quadrangle
formed by four of the streets, and from which others pass off; in that
quadrangle stand the chief remains of what was once the most magni-
ficent monastic structure perhaps in the three countries. They consist
of some fragments of the church, and of two other structures tolerably
entire, the kitchen, and the chapel of St. Joseph (Fig. 512). The
style of the church belongs to the transition period of the twelfth
century, and is of a pure and simple character. The kitchen is a
very curious example of domestic architecture, of comparatively
recent date; the following story is told of its origin : — Henry VIII.
one day said to the abbot, who had offended him, but professedly
in reproof of the sensual indulgences which he appeared to believe
disgraced the monastery, that he would burn the kitchen ; upon
which the abbot haughtily replied that he would build such a
kitchen that not all the wood in the royal forest should be suf-
ficient to carry the threat into execution ; forthwith he built the
existing structure. The chapel is a truly remarkable place on
many accounts. It presents essentially the same architectural cha-
racteristics as the church, but is much more highly enriched. It
stands at the west end of the church, with which it communicates
by an ante-chapel, the whole measuring in length not less than one
hundred and ten feet, by twenty-five feet in breadth. But interest-
ing as the chapel and all the other monastic remains stretching so
far around (some sixty acres in all were included within the esta-
blishment) must be to every one, it cannot be these alone, or aught
that we may infer from them, that gives to Glastonbury its absorb-
.ng interest. Strip the locality of every tradition in which real
facts have but assumed the harmonious coverings of the imagina-
tion, or in which pure fictions have but still made everlasting a fact
of their own, that sueh and such things were believed at some re-
mote time, and are therefore scarcely less worthy of record, — strip
Glastonbury of all these, and enough remains behind to render it
impossible that it can ever be looked upon without the deepest feel-
ings of gratitude and reverence. Before we look at the soberer
facts, suppose we let Tradition lead us at her own " sweet will,"
whithersoever she pleases. We are, then, moving onwards towards
a small eminence, about half a mile to the north-west, noticing on
our way the numerous apple-trees scattered about, with their swell-
ing pink buds suggesting the loveliness of the coming bloom ; these
trees, Tradition tells us, gave to the isle one of its old and most
poetical names, Avalon, from the Saxon Avale, an apple. But we

have reached the eminence In question, and are looking about us
with keen curiosity, to learn, if we can, from the very aspect of the
place, the origin of its curious designation — Weary-all Hill. Here,
Tradition informs us, was the spot where the first bringer of glad
tidings to the British heathen, Joseph of Arimathea, sent by Philip
the apostle of Gaul on that high mission, rested on his inland way
from the seashore where he had landed, and, striking his staff into
the ground, determined to found in the vicinity the first British
temple for the Christian worship. Hence the name existing to this
day of Weary-all-Hill, and hence that peculiar species of thorn,
which, springing from St. Joseph's budding staff, tells to a poetical
belief the story of its origin, and the period of the year vhen Joseph
arrived, in its winter or very early spring flowers (Fig. 514). The
spot itself was no doubt thought too small to rear such a structure
upon as was desirable, and therefore the little band of missionaries
moved half a mile farther, and there commenced their labours in
founding a Christian edifice for the native worshippers, who speedily
flocked around them. In that early building St. Joseph himself,
continues our authority, Tradition, was buried on his decease; and
when, in the lapse of ages, the new faith had become prosperous
and magnificent in all its outward appliances, and a new church
was erected more in harmony with the tastes, skill, and wants of the
age, the site of that primeval building, and the place of Joseph's
burial, were still reverentially preserved by the erection over them
of a chapel dedicated to the saint's memory. And this is the chapel
of St. Joseph, within whose walls we may still wander and commune
with our own thoughts, on the importance of the truths which from
hence gradually extended their all-pervading influence through the
length and breadth of the land. But are these traditions true? —
We answer, that in their essence, we have no doubt they are strictly
so. Weary-all-Hill may never have been trodden by Joseph of
Arimathea's steps ; the staff certainly never budded into the goodly
hawthorns that so long were the glory of the neighbourhood; bai
in the subsequent history of Glastonbury, we find ample corrobora-
tive evidence to show that there was some especial distinction enjoyed
by the monastery, and that that distinction was the fact so poetically
enshrined in the popular heart, of its having been the place where
the sublime story of the Cross, and its immeasurable consequences,
were first taught among us. Thus, in the most ancient charters
of the monastery, we find the very significant designation assigned
to it — " The fountain and origin of all religion in the realm of
Britain :" thus, we find, through the earliest Saxon periods, one
continued stream of illustrious persons, showering upon it wealth,
privileges, honours, during life; and confiding their bodies to its
care after death. What was it that brought the great Apostle of
Ireland, after his successful labours, to Glastonbury, a little before
the middle of the fifth century ; when as yet no monastery existed,
and the few religious who performed the service of the church,
burrowed, like so many wild beasts, in dens, caves, and wretched
huts? What could bring such a man, in all the height of his
spiritual success, to such a place ? What, but the sympathy that his
own exertions in Ireland naturally caused him to feel, in an extra-
ordinary degree, for the place where similar exertions had been
previously made in England ? Here St. Patrick is said to have spent
all the latter years of his life, and to have raised Glastonbury into a
regular community. A century later exhibits another retirement
to Glastonbury, which also, probably, marks the peculiar attraction
that the circumstances we have described had given to it. About
the year 530, David Archbishop of Menevia, Avith seven of his suf-
fragans, came to Glastonbury, and enlarged the buildings by the
erection of the chapel of the Holy Virgin, on the altar of which he
deposited a sapphire of inestimable value. In 708, all previous
exertions to increase the comfort, size, and beauty of the conventual
edifice were thrown into the shade by those of Ina, King of Wes-
sex, who rebuilt the whole from the very foundation. At that
period, the alleged origin of Glastonbury seems to have been fully
believed ; it was on the chapel of St. Joseph that the monarch
lavished his utmost care and wealth, garnishing it all over with
gold and silver, filling it with a profusion of the most costly ves-
sels and ornaments. Still growing in magnificence, scarcely a
century and a quarter had elapsed, before new works were com-
menced, which, when finished, made Glastonbury the " pride of
England, and the glory of Christendom." A striking evidence of
its pre-eminence is given in the statement that it then furnished
superiors to all the religious houses in the kingdom. But when we
know who was the abbot of Glastonbury at the period, we may
cease to be surprised — it was Dunstan, a man whose connect'eh
with it has added even to Glastonbury's reputation. Born almost
within its precincts, his mind saturated with all its strange and
beautiful legends, he formed a personal attachment to the mona»

S 2

501. — Font in Sharnbourn Church
Norfolk.

90

5 .2— We it Side of I r.dekirk L'ont.

5 "9. - Marriage ot the Father and Mother of Becket. (From the Royal MS 2 B. \ ii.)

50S.~Bup!ism of the Mother of Becket. (From the Royal MS 2 I), i ii.)

51C— Burial of a deceased Monk in the Interior of a Convent. (From anaucient drawing in the Harleian M3S.

Cll.— Stone Coffins —Ix worth Abbey, Suffolk.

505.— Font in TfHey Church.

.C.S5.- Font in Neswick Church.

507.— Group of Norman-Frglish Fonts.

132

513.— Cup found in the Ruins of Ulastonbuiy Abbey.

512-Kuius o! Glastonbury Abbey, as I bey appeared in 1785.

614.— The Glastonbury Thorn.

C13. — Lewe3 Priory.

516.— St. Botolph's Triory, Colchester.

134

OLD ENGLAND.

[Book li.

tery, long before ambition could have led hiii* to connect its ad-
vancement with his own; in early life he received the tonsure
within its walls ; and when, returning for a time, disgusted with the
world, or at least that portion of it, Athelstan's court, with which he
was best acquainted, he buried himself in privacy, it was in or near
the Abbey of Glastonbury that he built himself a cell or hermitage
with an oratory, and divided his time between devotion and the
manual service of the abbey, in the construction of crosses, vials,
censers and vestments. It is hardly necessary to state that here
too he held that meeting with the Evil One which has redounded
so greatly to his fame. Those who like to study the hidden mean-
ings that no doubt generally do exist in the most marvellous narra-
tions that have been handed down from a remote time, may find a
clue to this one, in the statement of the ' Golden Legend,' printed
by Caxton, that the Devil came in the form of a handsome woman.
From the period of the abbacy of Dunstan dates the establishment
of the Benedictine monks in England, who were brought from Italy
by him, and subsequently introduced into his own monastery, in
spite of the clamour raised against them, in consequence of their
severe discipline, which put to shame the loose and almost licen-
tious habits of the secular clergy. He lost his abbacy, however,
for a time, in consequence, and was banished during the reign of
Edwy ; but returned during that of his successor, Edgar, over
whose mind it is well known he obtained the most absolute control.
It was probably through this intimacy that Edgar was induced to
erect a palace within two miles of Glastonbury, at a most romantic
situation still known as Edgarley ; and of which structure some
interesting vestiges remain, — a pelican and two wolves' heads, at-
tached to a modern house; the last symbol referring to Edgar's
tax upon the Welsh people for the extirpation of wolves. The
king was buried at Glastonbury, and, we may be sure, in the most
sumptuous manner, for the monks owed much to him. What with
the privileges conferred by him, and what with those previously
possessed, Glastonbury was raised to the highest pitch of monastic
splendour. Over that little kingdom, the Isle of Avalon, the abbots
were virtual sovereigns ; neither king nor bishop might enter with-
out their permission. They governed themselves in the same inde-
pendent mode : the monks elected their own superior. And, although
some reverses were subsequently experienced, as immediately after
the Conquest, for instance, the foundation continued down to its very
destruction at the Reformation, in such magnificence, that the poor
of the whole country round were twice a week relieved at its gates,
and when the last abbot, Whytyng, rode forth, he was accustomed
to move amidst a train of some sixscore persons. That same abbot
died on the scaffold, a victim to the brutal monarch who then dis-
graced the throne ; and a revenue exceeding 3,500/. a-year fell into
Henry's rapacious hands.

Such is a mere sketch of the history of the important abbey of
Glastonbury ; but there is yet one point connected with it, that, in
the absence of all other interesting associations, would invest the
precincts of Glastonbury with a thousand fascinations. Here King
Arthur was buried! Arthur, that hero, whose most romantic
history appears so dimly to our eyes through the mists of above
thirteen centuries, that we can hardly distinguish the boundaries
between the true and false. There can be no doubt, however, of
that part of his history which relates to Glastonbury. He died, it is
understood, at the battle of Camlan in Cornwall, in 542, and was
conveyed by sea to Glastonbury, there buried, and, in process of
time, the spot was altogether forgotten and lost. The way in which
it was discovered harmonizes with the rest of Arthur's story. When
Henry the Second was passing through Wales on his way to Ireland,
in 1172, he delighted the Welsh with his politic compliments upon
their services in his Irish expeditions. They, full of enthusiasm,
wished him all the prosperity that had attended their favourite King
Arthur, whose exploits were sung to him as he dined, by one of the
native bards. In the song mention was made of the place of Arthur's
burial, between two pyramids in the churchyard at Glastonbury.
On Henry's return to England, he told the abbot of the monastery
what he had heard ; and a search was instituted. Of this very inte-
resting event there was fortunately eye-witness one of our chroni-
clers, Giraldus Cambrensis. Seven feet below the surface of a huge
broad stone was found, with a small thin plate of lead in the form
of a corpse, and bearing, in rude letters and barbarous style, the
Latin inscription : " Hie jacet Sepultus Inclytus Rex Arturius in
Insula Avalonia." Nine feet deeper, they found the object of their
search in the trunk of a tree ; the remains of Arthur himself were
displayed to their eyes, and by his side lay those of his wife
Guinever. The bones of the king were of extraordinary size ; the
shinbone, fastened against the foot of a very tall man, reached three
fingers' breadth above his knee. The skull was covered with wounds ;

ten distinct fractures were counted ; one of great size, apparently
the effect of the fatal blow. The queen's bod) was strangely whole
and perfect ; the hair neatly platted, and of the colour of burnished
gold ; but when touched, it fell suddenly to dust, reminding one of
the similar scene described in Mrs. Gray's work on ' Etruria,' where
the party beheld for a moment, on opening a tomb, one of the ancient
kings of that mysterious people, raised and garbed in lifelike and
sovereign state, and in which, on the exposure to the fresh air, there
was perceptible a kind of misty frost. The next moment all was
lost, in the dust of the ground upon which they gazed with so much
astonishment. This discovery appears to have excited so deep and
permanent an interest, that Edward the First could not be con-
tented without seeing the remains himself: so he came hither with
his beloved Queen Eleanor ; and the ceremony of exhumation was
very solemnly performed. The skulls were then set up in the
Treasury, to remain there ; the rest of the bodies were returned to
their places of deposit, Edward inclosing an inscription recording
the circumstances. The stately monument erected over Arthur
and Guinever was destroyed at the Eeformation, and with it dis-
appeared all traces of the contents.

We conclude with the following spirited lines from Drayton :—

" O three-times famous isle, where is that place that might
Be with thyself compar'd for glory and delight,
Whilst Glastonbury stood ? exalted to that pride
"Whose monastery seem'd all other to deride :
Oh ! who thy ruin sees whom wonder doth not fill
With our great fathers' pomp, devotion, and their skill ?
Thou more than mortal power (this judgment rightly weigh'd)
Then present to assist, at that foundation laid,
On whom, for this sad waste, should justice lay the crime ?
Is there a power in fate, or doth it yield to time ?
Or was their error such, that thou could'st not protect
Those buildings which thy band did with their zeal erect?
To whom didst thou commit that monument to keep,
That suffereth with the dead their memory to sleep ?
When not great Arthur's tomb nor holy Joseph's grave,
From sacrilege had power their sacred bones to save ;
He who that God in man to his sepulchre brought,
Or he which for the faith twelve famous battles fought.
What ! did so many kings do honour to that place,
For avarice at last so vilely to deface ?
For reverence to that seat which had ascribed been,
Trees yet in winter bloom and bear their summer's green."

Of another monastic establishment of the period in review, St.
Botolpii's, Colchester, we need not enter into any lengthened
notice (Fig. 516). It was founded in the reign of Henry the First,
as a Priory of Augustine Canons, by a monk of the name of
Ernulph ; dissolved, of course, at the Reformation; and the chief
buildings reduced to a premature ruin in the civil war, when the
great siege of Colchester took place. Parts of the church form
the chief remains. The west front has been originally a very
magnificent though very early work ; the double series of intersect-
ing arches that form the second and third stages of the facade, and
extend over the. elaborately-rich Norman gateway, are especially
interesting ; as it is from such examples of the pointed arches thus
accidentally obtained by the intersections of round ones that the
essential principle of the Gothic has been supposed to have been
derived. Some of the lofty circular arches of the walls forming
the body of the church also exist in a tolerable state of preservation.
The length of the church was one hundred and eight feet, the
breadth across the nave and aisles about forty- four. The exceeding
hardness of much of the materials used in the construction of this
building renders it probable that they had been taken from the
wrecks of Roman buildings at Colchester.

The priory of Lewes, in Sussex, of which there are only a few
walls remaining (Fig. 515), was founded in 1077, by William, Earl
of Warenne, who came into England with the Conqueror. The
founder has left a remarkable document in his charter to the abbey,
wherein he describes the circumstance which led him to this act of
piety. He and his wife were travelling in Burgundy, and finding
they could not in safety proceed to Borne, on account of the war
which was then carrying on between the Pope and the Emperor,
took up their abode in the great monastery of St. Peter at Cluni.
The hospitality with which they were treated, the sanctity and
charity of the establishment, determined the Earl to offer the new
religious house which he founded at Lewes to a select number of
the monks of that fraternity. After some difficulties his request was
complied with, and the Cluniacs took possession of this branch of
their house. The anxiety of the earl liberally to endow this house,
and his determination "as God increased his substance to increase
hat of the monks," finds a remarkable contrast four hundred and

Chap. 1 1. J

OLD ENGLAND.

135

fifty years afterwards. After the dissolution of the religious houses,
John Portmari writes to Lord Cromwell of his surprising efforts in
pulling down the church ; and having recounted how he had
destroyed this chapel, and plucked down that altar, he adds, " that
your Lordship may know with how many men we have done this,
we brought from London seventeen persons, three carpenters, two
smiths, two plumbers, and one that keepetli the furnace. These
are men exercised much better than the men we find here in the
country." And yet they left enough " to point a moral."

Tradition and romance have been busily at work respecting the
origin and locality of the earliest building dedicated to St. Paul as
the chief metropolitan church. It has been supposed to have been
founded by the Apostle Paul himself; while there is really some
reason to presume that the site, possibly the actual building, had
been at first dedicated to the heathen worship of Diana. Ox heads,
sacred to that goddess, were discovered in digging on the south
side of St. Paul's in 1316; at other times the teeth of boars and
other beasts, and a piece of buck's horn, with fragments of vessels,
that might have been used in the pagan sacrifices, have been found.
The idea itself is of antique date. Flete, the monk of Westminster,
referring to the partial return to heathenism in the fifth century,
when the Saxons and Angles, as yet unconverted to Christianity,
overran the country, observes, "Then were restored the whole abo-
minations wherever the Britons were expelled their places. London
worships Diana, and the suburbs of Thorney [the site of West-
minster] offer incense to Apollo." To leave speculations, and
turn to facts. The see of London was in existence as early as the
latter part of the second century ; though it is not until the sixth
that we find any actual reference to a church. But at that period
a very interesting incident occurred in the church, which Bede
dramatically relates : — •When Sebert, the founder of Westminster
Abbeyr, and the joint founder (according to Bede) with Ethelbert,
King of Kent, of St. Paul's, died, he "left his three sons, who were
yet pagans, heirs of his temporal kingdom. Immediately on their
father's decease they began openly to practise idolatry (though
whilst he lived they had somewhat refrained), and also gave free
licence to their subjects to worship idols. At a certain time these
princes, seeing the Bishop [of London, Mellitus] administering the
sacrament to the people in the church, after the celebration of mass,
and being puffed up with rude and barbarous folly, spake, as the
common report is, thus unto him : — ' Why dost thou not give us,
also, some of that white bread which thou didst give unto our
father Saba [Sebert], and which thou dost not yet cease to give to
the people in the church ?' He answered, ' If ye will be Mashed
ui that wholesome font whereat your father was, ye may likewise
eat of this blessed bread whereof he was a partaker; but if ye
contemn the lavatory of life, ye can in nowise taste the bread of
life.' ' We will not,' they rejoined, ' enter into this font of water,
for we know we have no need to do so ; but we will eat of that
bread nevertheless.' And when they had been often and earnestly
warned by the bishop that it could not be, and that no man could
partake of this most holy oblation without purification, and cleans-
ing by baptism, they at length, in the height of their rage, said
to him, ' Well, if thou wilt not comply with us in the small matter
that we ask, thou shalt no longer abide in our province and do-
minions ;' and straightway they expelled him, commanding tliat
he and all his company should quit the realm." Thus once more
Christianity was banished from London. It was, however, but for
a short time. The worship that the great Apostle of the Gentiles
preached soon again appeared in the church dedicated to his name ;
and powerful men vied with each other in raising the edifice to the
highest rank of ecclesiastical foundations. Kenred, king of the
Mercians, one of these early benefactors, ordained that it should be
as free in all things as he himself desired to be in the Day of Judg-
ment. The feeling thus evidenced continued, or rather gained in
strength. When the Conqueror came over, some of its possessions
were seized by his reckless followers : on the very day of his coro-
nation, however, their master, having previously caused everything
to be restored, granted a charter securing its property for ever, and
expressing the giver's benedictions upon all who should augment
the revenues, and his curses on all who should diminish them. The
church of Ethelbert was burnt in the Conqueror's reign, and a new
one commenced by Bishop Maurice. That completed, in little more
than a century.— when it appeared " so stately and beautiful, that
it was worthily numbered among the most famous buildings," — a
great portion of the labours were recommenced in order to give
St. Paul's the advantage of the strikingly beautiful Gothic style that
had been introduced in the interim, and carried to a high pitch of

perfection. In 1221 a new steeple was finished ; and in 1240 a new
choir. Not the least noticeable feature of these new works is the
mode in which the money was raised — namely, by letters from the
bishops addressed to the clergy and others under their jurisdiction,
granting indulgences for a certain number of days to all those who,
having penance to perform, or being penitent, should assist in the
rebuilding of St. Paul's. The subterranean church, St. Faith, was
begun in 1256 (Fig. 517). And thus at last was completed the
structure that remained down to the great fire of London, when
Old St. Paul's was included in the widespread ruin that overtook
the metropolis.

And in many respects that Old St. Paul's was an extraordinary
and deeply-interesting pile. Its dimensions were truly enormous
The space occupied by the building exceeded three acres and a half.
The entire height of the tower and spire was 534 feet (Fig. 522).
For nearly 7C0 feet did nave and choir and presbytery extend in one
continuous and most beautiful architectural vista; unbroken save by
the low screen dividing; the nave from the choir. The breadth and
height were commensurate; the former measuring 130 feet, the
latter, in the nave, 102 feet. Over all this immense range of wall,
floor, and roof, with supporting lines of pillars, sculpture and paint-
ing and gilding had lavished their stores; and their effects were
still further enhanced by the gorgeously rich and solemn hues that
streamed upon them from the stained windows. At every step was
passed some beautiful altar with the tall taper burning before it, or
some chantry, whence issued the musical voices of the priests, as
they offered up pruyers for the departed founders, or some magnifi-
cent shrine, where all the ordinary arts of adornment had been in-
sufficient to satisfy the desire to reverence properly the memory of
its saint, and which therefore sparkled with the precious metals, and
still more precious gems — silver and gold, rubies, emeralds, and
pearls. Pictures were there too, on every column or spare corner
of the walls, with their stories culled from the most deeply-treasured
and venerated pages of the Sacred Scriptures ; the chief of these was
the great picture of St. Paul, which stood beside the high altar in a
beautiful " tabernacle" of wood. Then there were the monuments ;
a little world in themselves of all that was rare and quaint, splendid
or beautiful, in monumental sculpture and architecture ; and which
yet when gazed upon, hardly arrested the careful attention of the
beholder to their own attractions, but rather preoccupied his mind
at the first sight of them by remembrances of the men to whose
memory they had been erected. Here lay two monarchs — Sebba,
King of the East Saxons, converted by Erkenwold, Bishop of
London, and son of King Offa ; and Ethelred the Unready, whose
reign might be appropriately designated by a more disgraceful
epithet. Here lay also Edward Atheling, or the outlaw, Ethelred's
grandson, one of the popular heroes of English romantic history,
who lost the kingdom by his father's (Edmund Ironside's) agree-
ment with Canute, to divide the kingdom whilst both lived, and the
survivor to inherit the whole, and who was waiting about the Court
of Edward the Confessor in the hope of regaining that kingdom,
when he died, poisoned, it was suspected, by his rival Harold. Here
also lay Saint Erkenwold, the canonized bishop of the see, and
in such glorious state as has been accorded to the remains of few
even of the mightiest potentates of earth. Among all the marvels
of artistical wealth that filled almost to overflowing the interior of
Old St. Paul's, the shrine of St. Erkenwold stood pre-eminent. It
consisted of a lofty pyramidical structure, in the most exquisitely
decorated Pointed style ; with an altar-table in front, covered with
jewels and articles of gold and silver. Among the former was the
famous sapphire stone, given by Pichard de Preston, citizen and
grocer of London, for the cure of infirmities in the eyes of all those
who, thus afflicted, might resort thither. To the mental as well as
to the bodily vision this shrine was the grand feature of the cathe-
dral ; for' the commemoration of the saint's burial was regularly
observed with the highest and most magnificent of church cere-
monials. Then, in solemn procession, the bishop, arrayed in robes of
the most dazzling splendour, accompanied by the dean and other dis-
tinguished officers, and followed by the greater part of the parochial
clergy of the diocese, passed through the cathedral to the shrine,
where solemn masses were sung, and the indulgences granted to all
who visited the saint's burial-place, and to those who there offered
oblations, recited. Then might have been beheld a touching and beau-
tiful scene; rich and poor pressing forward with their gifts— costly
in the one case ; a mere mite, like the poor widow's, in the other.

But there were yet mightier spirits among the buried dead of Old
St. Paul's. Passing over Sir John Beauchamp, son of the renowned
Guy, Earl of AYarwick, Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, one d
Edward the First's ablest military cfficers, and the accomplished
Sir Simon Burley, executed during the reign of Richard II., we

517.— St. Faith's.

51 a.— Paul's Y/allt

522.— Old St. Paul's, before the Destruction of ihe Stesple.

mm

520.— Paul's Cross

'521. -East Window, from the Choir, St. Paul's.

519.— Old St. Faal'8 Cathedral -ScnUi Flew.

136

52T.— The Western Entrance, Interior, St. Bartholomew's Church.

525.

-The Crypt, St. Bartholomew s Church.

529.— Entrance to Barttioiomew Close, from SmithGeU.

, 528.— Prior Riihere's Tomb.

530.— Prior Bolton s Rebus.

523.— South Side of St. Bartholomew's C'-.'.r:!:,

52S.— The Choir, St. Bartholomew's Churrh

No. i a.

137

138

OLD ENGLAND.

JBook IL

find that John of Gaunt, " time-honoured Lancaster," was interred
in Old St. Paul's beneath a magnificent monument, where athwart
the slender octagonal pillars appeared with a very picturesque effect
his tilting-spear, and where the mighty duke himself lay in effigy
beneath a canopy of the most elaborate fretwork. Beside him re-
clined Blanche, the duke's first wife, whom Chaucer has made im-
mortal by his grateful verse. In the cathedral was witnessed on
one occasion an important scene, with which John of Gaunt was
most honourably connected. Wickliffe was cited here to answer
before the great prelates of the realm the charge of heresy and inno-
vation. He appeared, but with such a train as seldom falls to the
early history of church reform to speak of; it will be sufficient to
say, John of Gaunt was at their head. The meeting broke up
in confusion. In later times Linacre, the eminent physician, and
founder of the College of Physicians, Sir Christopher Hatton, Sir
Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth's secretary, and Sir Nicholas, father
of Lord Bacon, her keeper of the seals, were all interred in St.
Paul's ; as were Dean Colet, the founder of St. Paul's School, and
the poet Donne, whose effigy yet exists in the present cathedral,
disgracefully thrown into a dark corner in the vaults below.

There were many features of Old St. Paul's which, if they did not
add to, or even harmonise in our notions with, the religious charac-
ter of the edifice, certainly added wonderfully to its attractions in the
eyes of our more enjoying and less scrupulous forefathers. Thus, did
civil war threaten — the martial population of London flocked to
the church to witness the presentation of the banner of St. Faul to
Robert Fitzwalter, the hereditary Castellan of the city, who came
on horseback, and armed, to the great west door, where lie was met
by the mayor and aldermen, also armed ; and, when he had dis-
mounted and saluted them, handed to them the banner, " gules," with
the image of St. Paul in gold, saying they gave it to him as their
bannerer of fee, to bear and govern to the honour and profit of the
city. After that, they gave the baron a horse of great value, and
twenty pounds in money. Then was a marshal chosen to guide the
host of armed citizens, who were presently to be called together eii
masse by the startling sound of the great bell. Was amusement
sought — there were the regular Saturnalias of the Boy-Bishops, and
the plays, for which Old St. Paul's enjoyed such repute. The boys
of the church seem to have been originally the chief performers,
and obtained so much mastery over the art as to perforin frequently
before the kings of Phigland. Their preparations were expensive, but
were evidently more than paid for by the auditors ; for in the reign
of Richard II. ihey petitioned that certain ignorant and inexpe-
rienced persons might be prohibited from representing the History
of the Old Testament to the great prejudice of the clergy of the
cathedral. Were great public even Is passing — had one monarch
been pushed from the throne by another or by death — St. Paul's was
almost sure to furnish, in one shape or another, palpable evidences of
the matter that was in all men's thoughts. Thus when Louis of
France came to London in 1216, the English barons present swore
fealty to him in St. Paul's ; thus, when success now elated the heart
of a Henry VI., now of his adversary Edward IV., each came to St.
Paul's, to take as it were solemn and public possession of the king-
dom : thus, when the body of a Richard II., or of a Philip Sydney,
had to be displayed before the eyes of a startled or of a mourning
nation, to St. Paul's was it brought — the king to be less ho-
noured in his remains than the humblest of knights, the knight to
be more honoured than any but the very best of kings. Were
there business to attend to, when all these other sources of interest
were unheeded or for the time in abeyance, — then to St. Paul's
Walk must the citizens of London have had frequent occasion to go.
There were lawyers feed, horses and benefices sold, and set payments
made. A strange scene, and a strange company, in consequence,
did the cathedral present through the day ! " At one time," writes
an eye-witness, "in one and the same rank, yea, foot by foot, and
elbow by elbow, shall you see walking, the knight, the gull, the
gallant, the upstart, the gentleman, the clown, the captain, the
appel-squire, the lawyer, the usurer, the citizen, the bankrout, the
scholar, the beggar, the doctor, the idiot, the ruffian, the cheater,
the puritan, the cut-throat, the high men, the low men, the true
man, and the thief; of all trades and professions some ; of all coun-
tries some. Thus while Devotion kneels at her prayers, doth Pro-
fanation walk under her nose " (Dekker's ' Dead Term '). (Fig.
518.)

The undoing of Old St. Paul's forms scarcely a less interesting
history than the doing. The Bell Tower was the stake of Henry
VIII., when he played at dice with Sir Miles Partridge ; the knight
won, and the Bell Tower was lost to St Paul's : it soon disappeared.
In the reigns of Edward VI. and Elizabeth, the greater part of the
sculpture and rich brasses of the interior were destroyed by Puritan

hands; whilst the former reign was also marked by the wholesale
plunder of the very walls of the outworks of the structure, the
chapel and cloisters of Pardon Church Haugh, where the • Dance
of Death ' was painted, Shyrington's Chapel, and the Charnel House
and Chapel, with their many goodly monuments, in order (such was
the base fact) to get the materials, the mere stone and timber, for
the new palace in the Strand, Somerset House. Then followed the
destruction of the steeple by fire in 1561. Next the civil war,
with its injuries. That over, and the State, after the brief inter-
regnum of the Commonwealth, restored to its old ways, came the
great fire, and put an end to all that remained of the cathedral, as
well as to the many degradations the fine old edifice had experienced.
Among these injuries, not the least were the beautifying and restoring
processes of Inigo Jones, whose portico might elsewhere have added
even to his well-deserved fame, but at St. Paul's only evidenced the
mistake the great architect had made, when he fancied he understood
the Gothic (Fig. 519).

There are probably few of our readers who, as they have gazed
on those architectural wonders of the middle ages, our cathedrals
and larger ecclesiastical structures, and thought of the endless diffi-
culties, mechanical and otherwise, surmounted in their construction,
but have felt a strong desiie to look back to the periods of their
erection, and to note all the variety of interesting circumstances that
must have marked such events. What, for instance, could be at once
more gratifying and instructive than to be able to familiarize ourselves
with the motives and characters of the chief founders, with the feel-
ings and thoughts of the people among and for whom the structures
in question were reared ? If our readers will now follow us into the
history of St. Bartholomew Priory, Smithfield, we think we can
venture to promise them some such glimpse of those fine old builders
at work ; and that too founded upon the best of authorities — an in ■
mate of the priory, who wrote so soon after its foundation, that
persons were still alive who had witnessed the whole proceedings.
We shall borrow occasionally the language as well as the facts of the
good monk's history, which has been printed in the ' Monasticon,'
and in Malcolm's ' London.' In the reign of Henry the First there
was a man named Rahere, sprung and born from low lineage, and
who when he attained the flower of youth began to haunt the house-
holds of noblemen and the palaces of princes ; Mdiere, under every
elbow of them he spread their cushions, with japes and flatterings
delectably anointing their eyes, by this maimer to draw to him their
friendships. Such was the youthful life of Rahere. But with years
came wisdom and repentance. He would go to Rome, and there
seek remission of his sins. He did so. At the feet of the shrine of
the Apostles Peter and Paul he poured out his lamentations ; but,
to his inexpressible pain, God, he thought, refused to hear him. He
fell sick. And then he shed out as water his heart in the sight of
God ; the fountains of his nature to the very depths were broken up ;
he wept bitter tears. At last dawned a new life upon the penitent
man. He vowed if God would grant him health to return to tik
own country, he would make an hospital in recreation of poor men,
and minister to their necessities to the best of his power. With re-
turning health to the mind not unnaturally came back health to the
body. And now more and more grew upon him the love of the
great work he had determined to perforin. Visions, as he believed,
were vouchsafed to him for his guidance. On a certain night he
saw one full of dread and sweetness, lie fancied himself to be borne
up on high by a certain winged beast, and when from his great ele-
vation he sought to look down, he beheld a horrible pit, deeper than
any man might attain to see the bottom of, opening, as it seemed,
to receive him. He trembled, and great cries proceeded from his
mouth. Then to his comfort there appeared a certain man, having
all the majesty of a king, of great beauty, and imperial authority,
and his eye fastened upon Rahere. " O man," said he, " what and
how much service shouldst thou give to him that in so great a
peril hath brought help to thee?" Rahere answered, " Whate\er
might be of heart and of right, diligently should I give in recom-
pense to my deliverer." Then said the celestial visitant, " I am
Bartholomew, the Apostle of Jesus Christ, that come to succour
thee in thine anguish, and to open to thee the sweet mysteries of
heaven. Know me truly, by the will and commandment of the
Holy Trinity and the common favour of the celestial court and
council, to have chosen a place in the suburbs of London, at Smith-
field, where in my name thou shalt form a church." Rahere with
a joyful heart returned to London, where he presently obtained the
concurrence of the king to carry out his views. The choice of the
place was, according to the monkish historian, who believed but
what all believed, no less a matter of special arrangement by Heaven.

Chap. II.J

OLD ENGLAND

139

Kin0- Edward the Confessor had previously had the very spot pointed
out to him when he was bodily sleeping, but his heart to God wak-
\n<r; nay more, three men of Greece who had come to London had
"•one to the place to worship God, and there prophesied wonderful
things relating- to the future temple that was to be erected on it. In
other points, the locality was anything but a favoured one. Truly,
says the historian, the place before his cleansing pretended to no
hope of goodness. Right unclean it was ; and as a marsh dungy
and fenny, with water at most times abounding ; whilst the only dry
portion was occupied by the gallows for the execution of criminals.
Work and place determined on, Rahere had now to begin to build ;
and strange indeed were the modes adopted by him to obtain the
•rift of the requisite materials, bring together the hosts of unpaid
workmen, or to find funds for such additional materials and labour as
mi°"ht be necessary. He made and feigned himself unwise, it is said,
and outwardly pretended the cheer of an idiot, and began a little
while to hide the secretness of his soul. And the more secretly he
wrought the more wisely he did his work. Truly, in playing unwise
he drew to him the fellowship of children and servants, assembling
himself as one of them ; and with their use and help, stones, and
other things profitable to the building, lightly he gathered together.
Thus did he address himself to one class of persons, those who
would look upon his apparent mental peculiarities as a kind of
supernatural proof of his enjoying the especial care of the Deity.
Another class he influenced by his passionate eloquence in the
churches ; where he addressed audiences with the most remarkable
effect, now stirring them so to gladness that all the people applauded
Jiiin, now moving them to sorrow by his searching and kindly exposure
of their sins, so that nought but singing and weeping were heard on
all sides. A third mode of obtaining help was by the direct one of
personal solicitation at the houses of the inhabitants of the neigh-
bourhood, in the course of which St. Bartholomew often, it appears,
redeemed his promise to Rahere of assistance. Alfun, a coadjutor of
Rahere's, the builder of old St. Giles, Cripplegate, went one day to
a widow, to see what she could give them for the use of the church
and the hospital of St. Bartholomew. She told him she had but seven
measures of meal, which was absolutely necessary for the supply of
her family. She, however, at last gave one measure. After Alfun
had departed with her contribution, she casually looked over the re-
maining measures, when she thought she counted seven measures still;
she counted again, and there were eight ; again, there were nine. How
long this very profitable system of arithmetic lasted, our good monk
does not state. And thus at last was St. Bartholomew's Priory raised,
clerks brought together to live in it, a piece of adjoining ground con-
secrated as a place of sepulchre, privileges showered upon it by the
hands of royalty, and the whole stamped, as was thought, with the
emphatic approval of Heaven by the miraculous cures that were then
wrought in the establishment. Yes, the work was finished, and
Rahere made the first prior. No wonder that the people, as we are
informed, were greatly astonished both at the work and the founder;
or that St. Bartholomew's was esteemed to belong more to the super-
natural than the natural. No wonder that as to Rahere it should
be asked, in the words of the monkish chronicler, " Whose heart
lightly should take or admit such a man not product of gentle blood,
not greatly endowed with literature, or of divine lineage," not-
withstanding his nominally low origin ? Rahere fulfilled the duties
of prior in the beloved house of his own .raising, for about twenty
years, when the clay house of this world he forsook, and the
house everlasting entered.

Of this very building, or rather series of buildings erected by
Rahere himself, there remains in a fine state of preservation an im-
portant portion, the choir of the conventual church used as the
present parish church (Fig. 526). There can be no doubt that we
have the original walls, pillars, and arches of the twelfth cen-
tury ; the massive, grand, and simple style of the whole tells truly
through the date of their erection. This choir, therefore, forms one
of the most interesting and valuable pieces of antique ecclesiastical
architecture now existing in England. Among its more remarkable
features may be mentioned the continuous aisle that runs round the
choir, and opening into it between the flat and circular arch-piers;
the elegant horseshoe-like arches of the chancel at the end of the
choir ; and the grand arches at the opposite extremity, shown in our
engraving, on which formerly rose a stately tower corresponding in
beauty and grandeur to all the other portions of the pile. The tomb
of Rahere is also in the choir, but it is of somewhat later date than
tf:e priory. Nothing so exquisitely beautiful in sculpture as that
work with its recumbent effigy, and attending monks and angels, its
fretted canopies and niches and finials, had yet burst upon old Eng-
land when Rahere died (Fig. 528). The very perfect state in which
it now appears is owing to Prior Bolton, who restored it in the

sixteenth century, as well as other parts of the structure ; a labour
of which he was evidently very proud, for wherever his handiwork
may be traced, there too you need not look long for his handwriting
— his signature as it were —a Bolt in tun (Fig. 530). This prior was
an elegant and accomplished man ; if even he were not much more.
The beautiful oriel window in the second story of the choir which
encloses the prior's pew or seat, nearly facing Rahere's monument,
as if that the prior might the better look down on the last resting-
place of the illustrious founder, was added by Bolton, and has
been supposed, for reasons into which we cannot here enter, to be
from his own designs. Another part of the ancient structure is to
be found in the old vestry-room, which was formerly an oratory, de-
dicated to the Virgin. Among the burials in the church the most
important perhaps was that of Roger Walden, Bishop of London,
who rose from a comparatively humble position to the highest offices
of the State ; he was successively Dean of York, Treasurer of Calais,
Royal Secretary and Royal Treasurer, and, lastly, Primate of
England, on the occasion of the banishment of Archbishop Arundel
by Richard the Second. That ecclesiastic, however, returned
with Bolingbroke to his country and office, and Walden became
at once a mere private person. Arundel, it is pleasant to relate,
behaved nobly to the unfortunate prelate, making him Bishop
of London. He died, however, shortly after. Fuller compares
him to one so jaw-fallen witii over-long fasting that he cannot eat
meat when brought unto him. Sir Walter Mildmay, founder
of Emanuel College, Cambridge, and Dr. Francis Anthony, the dis-
coverer and user of a medicine drawn from gold (aurum potabile
he called it), also lie here buried. There are other monuments not
unworthy of notice ; though at St. Bartholomew'?, as now at most
other churches, the major portion refer to those who were, like
"Captain John Millett, mariner, 1600."

Desirous hither to resort
Because this parish was their port ;

but who have not, like him, told us this in so amusing a manner
Of the other parts of the priory, there remain the entrance gateway
(Fig. 529), portions of the cloisters, and of the connected domestic
buildings ; above all, the refectory, or grand hall, still stands to a
great extent entire, though so metamorphosed that its very existence
has hardly been known to more than a few. It is now occupied by
a tobacco-manufactory and divided into stories ; but there can be
no. doubt that any one who shall attentively examine the place will
come to the same conclusion as ourselves, that the whole has formed
one grand apartment, extending from the ground to the present roof,
and that the latter has been originally of open woodwork. It may
help to give some general idea of the magnificent scale of the priory,
to state that this hall must have measured forty feet high, thirty
broad, and one hundred and twenty in length. Another illustration
of the same point is furnished by the plan, which shows the pile in
its original state (Fig. 524).* If we look at the part marked O, the
present parish church, and the old choir, and see how small a
proportion it bears to the entire structure, we have a striking view
of the former splendour and present degradation of St. Bartholo-
mew's. The site of the other buildings there marked are now
occupied by the most incongruous assemblage of filthy stables and
yards, low public-houses, mouldering tenements, with here and there
residences of a better character ; and in few or none of these can we
enter without meeting with corners of immense walls projecting
suddenly out, vaulted roofs, boarded-up pillars, and similar evidences
of the ruin upon which all these appurtenances of the modern in-
habitants have been established. The only other feature that it is
necessary to mention is the crypt, which extends below the refec-
tory, and is one of the most remarkable places of the kind even in
London, so rich in crypts (Fig. 525). It runs the whole length of
the refectory, and is divided by pillars into a central part and two
aisles. Popular fancy has not even been satisfied with these suffi-

* EXPLANATION OF REFERENCES IN THE PLAN (Fig. 524).

A. The Eastern Cloister, the only one of which

there arc any remains.

B. The North Cloister, parallel with the

Nave.

C. The South Cloister.

D. The West Cloister. The Square thus en-

closed by the Cloisters measures about a
hundred feet each way.

E. The North Aisle of the Nave.

F. The South Aisle, to which the existing

Gateway in front of Smithheld was the
original entrance.

G. The Nave, no part of which or of the

Aisles now remains.
H.St. Bartholomew's Chapel, destroyed by

Fire about ls:jn
I. Middlesex Passage, leading from Great to

Little Bartholomew (.M-ise.
J. The Dining Hall or Refectory of the Priory,

with the Crypt beneath.
K. Situation of" the Great Tower, which w.13

supported on four arches, that still re-
main.

L. The Northern Aisle of the Choir.

M. The Southern Aisle of the Choir.

N. The Eastern Aisle of the Choir.

0. The present Parish Church, forming the
Choir of the old Priory Church.

P. The Prior's House, with the Dormitory and
Infirmary above.

Q. Site of the Prior's Offices, Stables, Wood-
yard, &c.

i;. The Old Vestry.

S. The Chapter-House, with an entrance Gate-
way from.

T. The South Transept.

U. The North Transept.

V. The present entrance into the Church.
On the top of the plan is Little Birtholomew
Close, on the left Cloth Fair, a; the
bottom Smithfield, and on the right
Great Bartholomew Close.

T 2

531.— Tbe Temple^Churcb, from the Entrance.

Ui>i r it\.5C

532.— The Western Window, Allar, &c, Temple Church.

531.— Porch, Temple Church.

535.— Inteiior of ihe Round, Temple Church.

a

0)

e
w

HO

f-M

SiII-

503 .— Round Church, Cambridge. Interior

541.— St. Johu's Hospital.— From Hollar.

540.— Round Church, Cambridge.

544.— Knight Templar.

mm

\ ( K ' \' '

.', \ i,

542.— St. John's Uate, Clerker.wsll, 1841.

538.- The Temple Church, from the South.

141

142

OLD ENGLAND.

[Book II.

ciently noticeable facts as to the subterranean regions of St. Bartho-
lomew's, but has stretched the crypt all the way to Islington,
where the prior had his country residence and pleasance or garden
of Canonbury ; and where the mansion and ga"den-house of Prior
Bolton are still preserved, close by the famous Tower of Canonbury.
The tower of course formed a part of the Canonbury estate, which
evidently derives its name from the canons of the priory.

Among those extraordinary institutions which from time to time
spring up in the world, rise to great prosperity, and in that state
exist for centuries together, exercising the most important influence
over the affairs of men, and then at last, either through the process
of gradual decay or the operations of a more sudden agency, dis-
appear altogether, and leave behind them, as the only traces of their
existence, a few mouldering edifices for the antiquary to mourn over
or to restore— among such institutions, conspicuous before all
others, stand those of the famous Christian warriors, as they loved
to designate themselves, the Knights of St. John and of the
Temple. And never was there a more deeply-interesting history
given to the world than is embodied in the records that tell us of
the growth of these Orders, of the picturesque amalgamation ot the
most opposite qualities of human nature required as the indispensable
preliminary of membership, of the active bravery and passive for-
titude with which the objects of the Institutions were pursued, of
the curiously-intense hatred that existed between the two great
Orders, and of their fate, so sudden, terrible, and, in some respects,
sublime in the one case, so protracted and comparatively undignified
and commonplace in the other. In these pages we can only touch,
and that briefly, upon the salient points of such a history. St.
John's may be called the oldest of the two Orders, since it dates
back to the erection of the Hospital of St. John at Jerusalem, soon
after the middle of the eleventh century, when it was founded for
the accommodation of Christian pilgrims, in connection with the
church of Santa Maria de Latina, built by the Christians of com-
mercial Italy, with the consent of the Mohammedan governors of
the Holy Land. But it was then no fighting community : to relieve
the hungry, weary, houseless, and sick, of their own faith, whom
piety had brought to that far-off land, was their especial vocation.
But the kindly offices of the good monks were not limited by the
boundaries of creed ; the " Infidel " Arab or Turk was also welcome
whenever necessity brought him to their doors ; a state of things
that contrasts powerfully and humiliatingly with the state that was
to supersede it.

The influences that transformed the peaceful monks of St. John's
into the most turbulent of soldiers did not spring out of common
occurrences. The wars of the Crusades broke out, the Saracens
were driven from Jerusalem, and Godfrey of Bouillon elected its
first Christian sovereign ; but the Hospital of St. John remained
essentially the same, more prosperous, but not more martial. It
should seem, even, that the ambition that alone agitated the members
at the time was that of enhancing the legitimate merits of their
position, by becoming still more charitable in their charity, still
more humble in their humility, still more self-denying in their
religious discipline, for in 1120 the Serjiens or Servientes of the
hospital formed themselves for such purposes into a separate
monastic body under the direct protection of the Church of Rome.
But about the same time a little band of knights, nine in number,
began to distinguish themselves by their zeal and courage in the
performance of a duty self-imposed, but of the most dangerous and
important character. They had devoted themselves, life and fortune,
to the defence of the high roads leading to Jerusalem, where the
Christian pilgrims were continually harassed and injured by the
warlike onslaught of the Mussulmen and the predatory attacks of
robbers. " Poor fellow-soldiers of Jesus Christ " they called them-
selves ; and poor enough indeed they were, since their chief, Hugh
de Payens, was constrained to ride with another knight on the
same horse: a memorable incident, which the Order, with" noble
pride, commemorated in their seal. Such services spoke eloquently
to every one. Golden opinions were speedily won. The poor
knights soon became rich knights. The little body began speedily
to grow into a large one. As a special honour they were lodged,
by the church, on the site of the great Hebrew Temple, and the
fame of the " Knighthood of the Temple of Solomon " began to
spread through Christian Europe. Amid the general excitement
of the Holy Wars this junction of the priest and soldier seemed but
a most happy embodiment of the prevailing passions, duties, and
wants of the age (Fig. 544). Thus, when Hugh de Payens himself
set out on a tour with four of the brethren, in order to promulgate
more distinctly the objects of the Society, and to seek assistance,

great was the interest and excitement that prevailed wherever they
came. They arrived in England in 1 128, and were received with the
deepest respect by Henry the First and his court. The result of
these travels was, that when the four brethren returned to Jerusalem
they brought with them in company three hundred of the best and
bravest of European chivalry. The new Society was evidently
moving the Christian world ; what wonder that the monks of St.
John felt themselves at last moved too — in the satrre direction.
Within a few years after De Payens' return, and during the spiritual
rule of Raymond du Puy, they took up the lance, and rushed forth
into the field in rivalry of the brotherhood of the Temple. And
between the warlike merit of the two, the knights who had become
monks, and the monks who had become knights, it would evidently
be impossible to decide; both were the flower of the Christian
armies, and the especial dread of the Saracen. The military annals
of no country or time exhibit deeds that can surpass, few even that can
rival, the prodigies of valour continually performed by these warrior
monks. But with wealth, corruption, as usual, flowed in. When
one Order (the Templars) possessed nine thousand manors, and the
other nineteen thousand, in the fairest provinces of Christendom, it
would be too much to expect that humility would long continue to
characterize either. The first evidence of the evil spirit that was at
work in their hearts was exhibited in their mutual quarrels, which
at last grew to such a height that they actually turned their arms
against each other ; and even on one occasion, in 1259, fought a
pitched battle, in which the Knights Hospitallers were the conquerors,
and scarcely left a Templar alive to carry to his brethren the in-
telligence of their discomfiture. This was an odd way to exhibit
the beauties of the faith they were shedding so much blood and ex-
pending so much treasure to establish among the Saracens, and
scarcely calculated to convince the infidel even of the military
necessity of acknowledging or giving May to it. The fact is that
the decline of the Christian power in the Holy Land may be traced,
in a great measure, to these miserable jealousies : it may be doubted
whether the two Orders did not, on the whole, retard rather than
promote the cause they espoused. But let us now look at their position
in this country. The first houses of both were established in London,
and nearly about the same time, the Priory of St. John at Clerken-
well in 1 100, by Jordan Briset, an English Baron, and his wife ; and
the Old Temple in Holborn (where Southampton Buildings now
exist) founded during the visit of Hugh de Payens, twenty-eight
years later. As the Templars, however, increased in numbers and
wealth, they purchased the site of the present Temple in Fleet
Street, and erected their beautiful church and other corresponding
buildings on a scale of great splendour. Both this church and the
church of St. John, Clerkenwell, were consecrated by Heraclius,
Patriarch of Jerusalem, whom events of no ordinary nature brought
to this country ; events which threatened to involve something like
the entire destruction oPthe Christians and their cause in the Holy
Land, if immediate succour was not granted by some most potent
authority. With Heraclius came the Masters of the two Orders ;
and the hopes of the trio, it appears, were centred on the King of
England, who had, on receiving absolution for the murder of
Becket, promised not only to maintain two hundred Templars at
his own expense, but also to proceed to Palestine himself at the
head of a vast army. At first all looked very encouraging. Henry
met them at Reading, wept as he listened to their sad narration of
the reverses experienced in Palestine, and, in answer to their prayers
for support, promised to bring the matter before parliament imme-
diately on its meeting. In that assembly, however, the barons
urged upon him that he was bound by his coronation bath to stay
at home and fulfil his kingly duties, but offered to raise funds to
defray the expense of a levy of troops, expressing at the same time
their opinion that English nobles and others might, if they wished,
freely depart for Palestine to join the Christian warriors. Henry with
apparent reluctance agreed; and "lastly, the king gave answer,
and said that he might not leave his land without keeping, nor yet
leave it to the prey and robbery of Frenchmen. But he would
give largely of his own to such as would take upon them that
voyage. With this answer the Patriarch was discontented, and
said, ' We seek a man, and not money ; well near every Christian
region sendeth unto us money, but no land sendeth to us a prince.
Therefore we ask a prince that needeth money, and not money that
needeth a prince.' But the king laid for him such excuses, that the
Patriarch departed from him discontented and comfortless ; whereof
the king being advertised, intending somewhat to recomfort him
with pleasant words, followed him unto the seaside. But the more
the king thought to satisfy him with his fair speech, the more the
Patriarch was discontented, insomuch that, at the last, he said unto
him, ' Hitherto thou hast reigned gloriouslv, but hereafter thou

LEIGHTON, B»0«

NTERIOR OF THE TEMPLE CHURCH.

Chap. IT.]

OLD ENGLAND.

143

shalt be forsaken of Him whom thou at this time forsakest. Think
on Him, what he hath given to thee, and what thou hast yielded to
Him again ; how first thou wert false to the King of France, and
after slew that holy man, Thomas of Canterbury ; and lastly thou
forsakest the protection of Christian faith.' The king was moved
with these words, and said unto the Patriarch, ' Though all the
men of my land were one body and spake witli one mouth, they
durst not speak to me such words.' ' No wonder,' said the Pa-
triarch, 'for they love thine, and not thee ; that is to mean, they
love thy goods temporal, and fear thee for loss of promotion ; but
they love not thy soul.1 And when he had so said he offered his
head to the king, saying, ' Do by me right as thou didst by that
blessed man, Thomas of Canterbury ; for I had liever to be slain
of thee than of the Saracens, for thou art worse than any Saracen.'
But the king kept his patience, and said, ' I may not wend out of
my land, for my own sons will arise against me when I am absent.'
' No wonder,' said the Patriarch, ' for of the devil they come, and
to the devil they shall go;' and so departed from the king in great
ire." (Fabyan.) Two years later, Saladin had put an end to the
Christian kingdom at Jerusalem, generously dismissing to their
homes his many distinguished prisoners, among whom was Heraclius,
and granting to the Christians generally of Europe the possession
of the sepulchre of Christ. His liberality experienced no suitable
return. A third Crusade was set on foot, the one in which Cceur-
de-Lion was engaged, to fail like the previous ones, to be again
followed by others, with the same result. In 1291 Acre was
besieged by the Sultan of Egypt, and taken after a most terrible
conflict, in which the two Orders were nearly exterminated : that
event in effect may be said to mark the final defeat of the Crusaders
in their long-cherished object of the conquest of the Holy Land.

The Knights of St. John, however, for about two centuries after
this, found ample employment of a kind after their own heart;
they obtained possession of the island of Rhodes, from whence they
kept up continual war, — of a very piratical character, though, be it
observed, — against the Turks; but in 1522 Solyman the Fourth, or
the Magnificent, after a tremendous siege, in which he is said to
have lost upwards of 100,000 men, completely overpowered the
defenders, although they fought with a courage that won his re-
spect, and induced him to consent at last that the Grand-master,
L'Isle Adam, and his surviving companions, might depart freely
whithersoever they chose. He visited his illustrious captive on
entering the city, and was heard to remark as he left him, " It is
not without pain that I force this Christian, at his time of life, to
leave his dwelling." The Emperor Charles the Fifth then bestowed
on them the island of Malta, which they fortified with works that
render it to this day almost impregnable, but where, after success-
fully resisting a most formidable attack from the Turkish troops of
Solyman, they gradually fell into a mode of life very different from
that which had previously characterized them, and which was
suddenly brought to a very ignominious conclusion by the appear-
ance of Napoleon, leading his Egyptian expedition, in 1798, and
by his landing- without opposition, through the mingled treachery
and cowardice of the knights ; who, however, received their reward :
the Order itself was then virtually abolished. It is not unworthy
of notice, as evidence of the amazing strength of the place, as well
as of the feeling of the French officers at so disgraceful a surrender,
that one of them, Caffarelli, said to Napoleon, as they examined the
works, " It is well, General, that some one was within to open the
gate for us. We should have had some difficulty in entering had
the place been altogether empty." A Grand-master and a handful
of knights, it seems, do still exist at Ferrara, and possess a scanty
remnant of the once magnificent revenue. The Templars experienced
a more tragical, but also infinitely more honourable termination of
their career, and one that redeemed a thousand faults and vices.
Within twenty years after their conduct and misfortunes at the
siege of Acre had entitled them to the sympathy of their Christian
brethren throughout the world, they were suddenly charged in
France with the commission of a multitude of crimes, religious and
social ; and to convince them that they were guilty, whether they
knew it or not, tortures of the most frightful description were un-
sparingly applied to make them confess. One who did confess,
when he was brought before the commissary of police to be ex-
amined, at once revoked his confession, saying, " They held me so
long before a fierce fire, that the flesh was burnt off my heels ; two
pieces of bone came away, tohich I present to you." Such were
the execrable cruelties perpetrated on the unhappy Templars in
France, where they were also sent to the scaffold in troops, and
thus at last the Order was made tractable in that country. In
England there was greater decency at least observed. If the
torture was applied at all, it was but sparingly, and the confession

obtained was at last reduced to so very innocent an affair, that no
man vould have been justified in sacrificing life and limb in resist-
ance ; so the Templars wisely gave way. All mat ers thus pre-
pared, the Pope in 1312 formally abolished the Order; and then
the world saw the truth of what it had before suspected, namely,
that all these atrocious proceedings were but to clear the way for
a general scramble for the enormous property of the Order, in which
the chief actors were of course the sovereigns of France and
England and the Pontiff. They had tried to persuade themselves
or their subjects that the rival order of St. John's was to have the
possessions in question, and they were nominally confirmed to it:
but about a twentieth of the whole was all that the Knights Hos-
pitallers ever obtained.

Of the two churches consecrated by Heraclius in London, that
of the Temple alone remains. St. John's was burnt, with all the
surrounding buildings of the priory, by the followers of Wat Tyler in
the fourteenth century, when the conflagration continued for no less
than seven days. The Temple had been previously injured by thein
on account of its being considered to belong to the obnoxious Hos-
pitallers. We see from Hollar's view of the priury in the seven-
teenth century (Fig. 511), that previous to the dissolution by Henry
the Eighth it had recovered much of its ancient magnificence.
But in the reign of Edward the Sixth the " church, for the most
part," says Stow, " to wit, the body and side aisles, with the great
bell-tower (a most curious piece of workmanship, graven, gilt, and
enamelled, to the great beautifying of the city, and passing all
other that I have seen), was undermined and blown up with gun-
powder; the stone whereof was employed in building of the Lord
Protector's house in the Strand." The remains of the choir form
at present a portion of the parochial church of Clerkenwell. But
there is another relic of the priory, the gateway (Fig. 542), which
Johnson " beheld with reverence," and winch his successors can hardly
look on without a kindred sentiment, were it on his account alone;
for here it was that Johnson came to Cave, the publisher of the
' Gentleman's Magazine,' to seek and obtain employment, being at
the time poor, friendless, and unknown ; nay, so very poor, that he
sat behind the screen to eat his dinner, instead of at the printer's
table, in order to conceal his shabby coat. The principal part of
the gateway now forms the Jerusalem Tavern. The groined roof
of the gate has been restored of late years. But we now turn to a
remain of the rival metropolitan house of the Templars, which is
of a very much more important character.

No one probably ever beheld the exterior of the Temple Church
(Fig. 538), for the first time, without finding his curiosity at least ex-
cited to know the meaning of its peculiar form, that round — half for-
tress, half chapter-house like — structure, with such a beautiful olilong
Gothic church body attached to it at one side. That the second
was added to the first at a later period is sufficiently evident ; but
we are puzzled by the " Pound" as it is called, till we begin to re-
member who were its founders : the men whose lives were spent in
the Holy Land, in a continual alternation of fighting and devotion :
whose houses there were one day a place of worship, the next of
attack and defence. Such, no doubt, were the origin of the Pound
churches of England, of which we possess but three others.

The restoration of these fine old works of our forefathers promises
to become a marked feature of the present time ; and if so, there will
be one especial labour of the kind, truly a labour of love to those
who have been concerned in it, that will stand out from all the rest,
as the grand exemplar of the true spirit that should animate restorers.
When the Benchers of the Temple began their noble task, they found
nearly all that was left of the original building, walls only excepted,
in a state of decay, and everything that was not original, without any
exception, worthless. Thus the elaborately-beautiful sculpture of
the low Norman doorway, which leads from the quaint porch (Fig.
534) into the interior of the Round, was in a great measure lost;
now we see it again in all its pristine splendour. The airy clustered
columns of Purbeck marble, which, standing in a wide circle, support
with their uplifted, uniting, and arching arms the roof of the Round
(Fig. 535), were no longer trustworthy ; so they had to be removed
entirely, and new ones, at an immense expense, provided ; and the
ancient quarry at Purbeck, from which so much marble must have
been drawn in the middle ages for the erection of our cathedrals, was
again opened on the occasion. Everything through the whole church
was covered witn coating upon coating of whitewash; consequently,
all traces were lost of the gilding and colour that had been everywhere
expended with a lavish hand, and which now again relieve the
walls, in the forms of pious inscriptions in antique letters, which
glow in the roofs of the Round and of the Chancel, and which gra-
dually increase into a perfect blaze of splendour towards and around
the altar (Fig. 532). The beautiful junction of the two parts of the

547.— The Ltidy Chapel, St. Mary Ovcrics.

tWZnb*/ s!Z^4^=±^f

— — J-J/.CK<i):j.

G30.— The Choir, St. Msry Overies.

■*-*£,.

545. — General View of St. Mary Overies, from the South.

II im h£L ,

54?.— Gower's Mcmn.tnt.

549.— Templar,' _St.*Mary Ovcric

'H6.— tforman Arch, St. Mary Ovaries.

144

5C3. - Finials, Can terbury .

657.— Capital, Crypt, Canterbury _

533.— B.ise, Crypt, Canterbury.

WW

r v..

}

562 l lapital, Canterbury.

55G. — Arcliicpiscipal Chair, Canterbury.

DC I . - Crockets, Canterbury.

C59.— Capital, Crypt, Canterbury.

J60. — Base, i?.E. Transept, Canterbury

56!.— Capital, 3.E. Transept, Canterbury,

551.— The Nave of Canterbury Cathedral.

Ik W%

(ffiWae.l

553.— Canterbury

555.— Font, Canterbury.

No. 19.

■^.-Canterbury Cathedral before the Tower was Rebuilt

145

1-46

OLD ENGLAND.

[Book II.

entire structure was then concealed by a barbarous screen of the age
of Charles the Second, that extended right across between them, and
over which was placed the organ ; now, once more, the eye ranges
alono- without interruption from the entrance door up to the very altar
(Fig. 53 1\ through one of the most beautiful of vistas, and the organ
has been removed into a chamber, constructed expressly outside the
central window of the chancel, on the north side ; the window itself,
by slight but judicious alterations, forming a beautiful open screen,
through which the chamber communicates with the church. Then,
again, the monuments of all kinds but the beautiful, which were
formerly let into the very body of the pillars, or placed in other
equally incongruous positions, have been removed into the triforium
or gallery of the Round ; warm, rich-looking tiles have replaced
the wooden pavement ; gorgeous stained-glass windows again diffuse
their magnificent hues upon every object around, and tell in their
" panes " the story of Him who died that all might live. In a word,
the Temple Church now presents, in most respects, an almost per-
fect example, on a small scale, of what the grand ecclesiastical
structures of the thirteenth century were generally ; that is, a con-
summate and most magical union of all the arts, architecture, paint-
ing, sculpture, and music, calculated at once to take man from the
world that they might guide him to heaven. "With one individual
feature of the Temple, we must now conclude our notice of it. On
the floor of the Round lie the sculptured effigies of men who belonged
to the period of Old England which we have at present under re-
view, and which, as being undoubted originals, are among the most
interesting pieces of sculpture we possess (Figs 536, 537). They have
lately been restored, with remarkable success, by Mr. Richardson —
having become seriously decayed — and now present to us, each in his
habit as he lived — Geoffrey de Magneville, that bold and bad baron
of the time of Stephen ; who, dying excommunicate, was for a time
hung upon a tree in the Temple Garden here — the great Protector,
Pembroke, who, by his wisdom, assuaged the divisions among his
countrymen after the death of John — the Protector's sons, William
and Gilbert, the former sheathing his sword ; he had fought, and
well, but his race was done ; the latter drawing it in the service,
as he intended, of God in Palestine, when death stopped the journey
— and, among others, De Roos, one of the barons to whom the
bloodless field of Runnymede has given undying reputation ; the
exquisitely-beautiful effigy, with the head uncovered, and the curling
locks flowing about it, represent that nobleman. These pieces
of sculpture were originally, like all the others in the Temple,
painted and gilded. We cannot here avoid drawing attention to
the head of a seraph, discovered on the wall between the Round and
the oblong part of the church during the restoration. The expres-
sion is truly seraphic. Traces of colour are even now perceptible ;
the cheeks and lips have once borne the natural hues of life, the
pupil of the eye has been painted blue, the hair gilded. In other
heads, also original, the eyes were found to be of glass. How all
this reminds one of the customs that prevailed among the Greeks,
where some of the most beautiful works the world had ever seen, or
would ever see, were thought to be enhanced by means like those we
have described.

The very magnificent character of the restoration of the Temple
Church, London, has been attended with one undesirable effect — it
has drawn away our attention from other labours of a similar and
only less important character. Such, for instance, is the restoration
of the Round Church of Cambridge, the oldest of the structures,
erected in England in the extraordinary circular form (Figs. 539 and
540). And what gives still higher interest to this building is the fact
alleged that it was consecrated in the year 1101, or several years be-
fore the institution of the Order of Knight Templars ; so that it can
hardly be attributed to them. In a paper recently read before the
Camden Society, the church is supposed to have been founded by
some one interested in the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre at Jeru-
salem, hence the imitation of the form of that building, and the name ;
and that the object in view was to make provision for the constant
prayers for the success of the Crusaders. We learn from the same
pages some other interesting matters. The parish has been tradition-
ally known as the Jewry, which designation, it is supposed, was given
to it in consequence of the model of the most sacred of Jewish struc-
tures being placed in it. The stained glass votive window, with a
saintly figure, which attracts the eyes of visitors to the restored
church, it appears, preserves the memory of Bede's legendary resi-
dence in the vicinity. Of the restoration of this important structure
it is hardly possible to speak too highly. The entire funds, with the
exception of some £1,600 still required, have been raised by volun-
tary subscription, and expended by a little band of ardent and
reverential lovers of all that is antique, grand, or beautiful in

our ecclesiastical architecture. The Camden Society especially
stands conspicuous in the good work, which has been carried on, we
are sorry to learn, through " repeated interruptions and obstruc-
tions," and which has — a common case — proved a much more
elaborate and costly task than was anticipated. The substantial
reparation of the decayed fabric was the object the committee set
before themselves ; and, much as these words include, it seems that
they have found it necessary to add the enlargement of one aisle,
the entire erection of another, a new bell-turret, " breaking-up
the unsightly uniformity of the rest of the building," the entire fit-
ting of the church with open seats and other necessary furniture in
carved oak ; and, lastly, the beautiful east window. They have thus
involved themselves in debt to the amount before stated, but we do
not think they will have relied in vain on the public sympathy and
assistance. The stately solemn-looking fabric, so eloquent of those
mighty primeval artists, those architectural giants of our early his-
tory, who " dreamt not of a perishable home " when they dedicated
their skill and cunning to the service of the Almighty, appears
again fresh as it were from their very hands. The restoration was
completed and the church given up to the parish authorities on the
last day of the year 1843, when a statement was made to the world,
concerning which great is yet the clamour in local and theological
publications. It was discovered that the restorers had erected a
stone altar, instead of a ivooden one, and that they had placed a
credence — a stone shelf or table — for the display of the elements of
the Sacrament. We leave the facts for our readers to weep over,
or smile at, as they may see occasion.

Of another of the establishments of the Templars, the Preceptor?
at Swingfield, situated about eight miles from Dover, and in
which John is said to have resigned his crown to the Pope's Legate,
but little now remains, and that is used as a farmhouse, while the
foundations may be traced in various parts of the homestead. The
eastern part, which was the most ancient (the Preceptory was
founded before 119^), exhibits three lancet-shaped windows, above
which are the same number of circular ones, and was probably the
chapel (Fig. 543J.

A few years ago, when the approaches to the new London Bridge
were in preparation, an agreement was proposed, and all but con-
cluded, that a space of some sixty feet should be granted for the
better display of an old church on the South wark side, and that a
certain chapel belonging to the latter, should be at the same time
swept away. The church in question, in short, was to be made as
neat and snug as possible, as a fitting preliminary to the new display
that it was to be permitted to make. There were persons, however,
who by no means approved of the scheme. They said that the
Chapel of our Ladye (Fig. 547), which was sought to be destroyed,
was one of the most beautiful and antique structures of the kind in
England. There were some, even, who held that the fact, that the
honoured ashes of good Bishop Andrews lay in it (Bishop Andrews,
whose death drew from Milton, no bishop-lover generally, a most pas-
sionate elegy), ought to make the place sacred. All this, no doubt,
seemed very nonsensical to the framers of the plan in question, who,
quietly appealed to the parishioners of St. Saviour's, and obtained the
sanction of a large majority to the destruction of the Ladye Chapel.
But the persons before mentioned were exceedingly obstinate. They
would not be quiet. The Press then took up the matter, and strove
might and main to forward the views of these malcontents. At
another meeting of the parishioners, the " destructives," to borrow
a political phrase, found their majority had dwindled down to three ;
and, what was infinitely worse, on a poll being demanded, they were
left in a minority of between two and three hundred — the beautiful
Ladye Chapel and Bishop Andrews' grave were safe. The work-
men not long after entered, but it was to restore, not to destroy.
Many, no doubt, owe their first personal acquaintance with, if not
their first knowledge of the Church of St. Mary Overies to the
circumstances here narrated, and have been at once surprised and
delighted to find so noble and interesting a structure (as beautiful
and almost as large as a cathedral) in such a place — the Borough.
And when they have been thus led to inquire into the history of the
building, their pleasure has been as unexpectedly enhanced. The
story of its origin is a tale of romance ; poetical associations of no
ordinary character attach to its subsequent annals ; holy martyrs
have passed from the dread tribunal sitting within its walls to the
fiery agony of the stake at Smithfield. Stow's account of the origin
of St. Mary Overies, derived from Linsted, its last prior, is as fol-
lows : — " This church, or some other in place thereof, was of old
time, long before the Conquest, a House <f Sisters, founded by a
maiden named Mary. Unto the which house and sisters she left (as
was left her by her parents) the oversight and profits of a cross

Chap. II. |

OLD ENGLAND.

147

ferry over the Thames, there kept before that any bridge was builded.
This House of Sisters was afterwards, by Swithin, a noble lady,
converted into a College of Priests, who, in place of the ferry, builded
a bridge of timber." Something like corroborative evidence of the
truth of this story was accidentally discovered a few years ago : —
•' When digging for a family vault in the centre of the choir of the
church, near the altar, it was found necessary to cut through a very
ancient foundation wall, which never could have formed any part of
the present edifice : the edifice exactly corresponds with that of the
House of Sisters " described by Stow as near the east part of the
present St. Mary Overies, " above the choir," and where he says
Mary was buried.

In a wooden box, in the choir, now lies a remarkably fine effigy,
of wood, of a Crusader : who he was it is impossible to tell with
any certainty, but we venture to think it represents one of the two
distinguished persons to whom St. Mary Overies was next largely
indebted after the humble ferryman's daughter, and the proud lady,
Swithin : those two are, " "William Pont de l'Arche and William
Dauncy, Knights, Normans," who, in the year 1106, refounded the
establishments, on a more magnificent scale, for canons regular
(Fig. 546). This Pont de l'Arche was probably the same as the
royal treasurer of that name in the beginning of the reign of Rufus.
And as carrying still further the records of the connection between
St. Mary Overies and the ferry first, and afterwards the bridge, it ap-
pears from a passage in Maitland (vol. i. p. 44, ed. 1756), that Wil-
liam Pont de l'Arche, whom we have just seen as the founder of the
first, was also connected with the last. If we are right in presuming
the Templar to be one of these " Knights, Normans," there can be no
doubt too that originally there was also the effigy of the other (Fig.
549) : the destructive fires that have from time to time injured the
structure explains its absence. There are two curious low-arched
niches on the north aisle of the choir ; were not these the resting-
places of the founders of the priory ? We venture to think so, and
have placed the Templar in one of them. Aldgod, we may observe,
was the first prior of St. Mary Overies. By the fourteenth century,
the buildings had become dilapidated ; a poet, Gower, restored them ;
or at least contributed the principal portion of the funds. Gower was
married in St. Mary Overies in 1397 : and there was at one time a
monument to his wife's memory, as well as to his own : the last alone
now survives (Fig. 548). This is an exquisitely beautiful work,
which has been most admirably restored to all its pristine splendour,
and where the quaint rhyming inscriptions in Norman French appear
in gay colours, and the effigy of the poet appears radiant in colour
and gilding. His head rests on three gilded volumes of his writings ;
one of them is the ' Confessio Amantis,' his principal and only pub-
lished work, the origin of which he thus relates: —

In Themse [Thames] when it was flowende,

As I by boat came rowend,

So as Fortune her time set

My liege lord perchance I met ;

And so befel as I came nigh

Out of my boat, when lie me sigh [saw],

He bad me to come into his barge,

And when I was with liim at large

Amonges other things lie said,

He bath this charge upon me laid,

And bade me do my business.

That to his high worthiness

Some newe thing I should book.

King Richard the Second's wishes were fulfilled in the ' Confessio
Amantis.'

On the pillar seen in our engraving of Gower's monument ap-
pears a cardinal's hat, with arms beneath. They refer directly, no
doubt, to the beneficence of a very remarkable man, Cardinal Beau-
fort, Bishop of Winchester, and who in that capacity resided in the
adjoining palace, but indirectly to still more interesting matters, in
which the busy cardinal had the principal share. Who has not
read, and treasured up ever in the memory after, the history of the
poet king, James of Scotland, he who, taken a prisoner whilst yet a
boy, was kept for many long years in captivity, but educated in the
mean time hi a truly princeb manner ; he who, as he has informed
us in his own sweet verse, whiist looking out upon the garden which
lay before his window, in Windsor Castle, beheld

walking under the tower,

Full secretly new coming her to plain,
Tho fairest and the freshest younge flower
That ever he saw, motliought, before that hour,

and who from that time was no longer heart-whole ; he who in all
probability was only allowed to free himself from one kind of bond-
age in order to enter into another, but then that was his marriage
with^the lady in question, Jane Beaufort, the cardinal's niece ;— who

but has been charmed by this romance of reality ? It is something
then to be able to add, for the honour of St. Mary Overies, that it
was within its walls that the ceremony took place. We may arid to
the foregoing poetical reminiscences, two or three brief, but preg-
nant sentences, all derived from the same authority, the parish re-
gisters. Under the year 1607 we read, " Edmond Shakspere, player,
in the church ;" and that sums up the known history of one of the
great dramatist's brothers. The date 1625 records, "Mr. John
Fletcher, a man, in the church ;" of whose personal history we
know little more. Aubrey thus relates his death : " In the great
plague of 1625, a knight of Norfolk or Suffolk invited him into the
country : he stayed but to make himself a suit of clothes, and while
it was making, fell sick and died ; this I heard from the taylor,
who is now a very old man and clerk of St. Mary Overy." Lastly
comes the most striking entry of all in connection with the year
1640: " Philip Massinger, a stranger." Let us leave the passage,
without comment, in all its awful brevity.

The priory was dissolved in 1539, when Linsted, the prior, was
pensioned off with 100/. a year. The annual revenie was then
valued at 6241. 6s. 6d.

During Wyatt's insurrection in 1554, the insurrectionary troops
were posted in Southwark, and the Lieutenant of the Tower bent his
ordnance against the foot of the bridge to hinder the passage, and alsc
against the towers of St. Olave's and St. Mary Overies churches.
One year afterwards still deadlier weapons were directed against the
faith to which St. Mary's belonged, and by its own friends, though
in the hope of benefiting it ; then was clearly seen the reality of the
dangers Wyatt had apprehended, and strove, but unsuccessfully, to
avert, in the sittings of a commission in the church, for the trial of
those diabolical offenders who dared to have an opinion of then
own. Among them first came John Rogers, a prebendary of St,
Paul's, who, when questioned by the judge, Bishop Gardiner, asked.
"Did you not yourself, for twenty years, pray against the Pope?"
" I was forced by cruelty," was the reply. " And will you use the
like cruelty to us?" rejoined Rogers. Of course he went to the
stake, Bonner refusing him permission to speak to his wife. Bishop
Hooper, who was also tried on the same day, was dismissed to the
like fate. John Bradford, another of the victims of the St. Mary
Overies commission, writing, somewhat about this time, of the death
of Hooper, says, " This day, I think, or to-morrow at the utter-
most, hearty Hooper, sincere Saunders, and trusty Taylor, end their
course, and receive their crown. The next am I, which hourly
look for the porter to open me the gate after them, to enter into the
desired rest."

The plan of St. Mary Overies is that of a cross, the principal
part of which is formed by the Lady Chapel, choir and nave ex-
tending from east to west nearly 300 feet ; and crossed by the
transept near the centre, where rises the majestic tower, 150 feet
high. The Anglo-Norman choir (Fig. 550) and transept still remain,
and present a fine specimen of the transition state between the com-
paratively rude and massive structures of the eleventh century^ and
the more elegant and stately productions of the thirteenth. This
portion of the church is now unused ; and the pews have consequently
been removed. The nave was found a few years ago in so ruinous
a state, that it became necessary either to restore it, for which suffi-
cient funds could not be obtained, or build on the site of it a less
expensive structure to be used as the parish church, and which
should, in some degree at least, harmonize in style with the rest
of the pile. The new nave has been rebuilt; but not with such
success as to prevent our deep regret for the loss of the old one
Our engraving (Fig. 545) exhibits the church as it was before th
rebuilding in question took place. The part nearest the eye shows
the old nave. Many objects of interest are to be found in the inte-
rior, in addition to those already incidentally mentioned; the screen,
for instance, a most elaborate and beautiful piece of sculpture, pre-
sumed to have been erected by Bishop Fox, as the pelican, his
favourite device, is seen in the cornice. It consists of four stories
of niches for statues, divided by spaces, from which project half-
length figures of angels. Right up the centre, from the bottom to
the top, extend three larger niches, one above another, in the place
of the four smaller ones that are found in every other part of the
screen ; these give harmony, completeness, and grandeur to the
whole. Ornament in profusion extends over every part. It will
be seen that the screen forms one mass of the richest sculpture ; and
this, too, is a work of restoration of our own times. The monu-
mental sculpture of St. Mary Overies is particularly curious and
interesting, much of it being painted, with the effigies resembling
the natural tints of life both in countenance and costume ; much of
it also referring to interesting personages ; and accompanied in some
cases by inscriptions which provoke a smile by their quaintness, i>r

TT o

*66.— Cathedral Precinct Uateway.

:C7 .— Chnpel in Canterbury Cathedral.

n

570.— Ruins of the Augustine Monastery at Canterbury.

572.— Ruins of the Priory of Lindisfara.

E73.— Abbey Gateway, Bristol. Ancient Window restored.

571.— St. Augustine's Gate, Canterbury.

1'9

150

OLD ENGLAND.

[Book II.

a sigh by their mournful beauty. Two specimens must suffice to
conclude our present notice. On the tomb of a grocer, formerly in
the Ladye Chapel, was inscribed,

Weep not for hirn, since he is gone before

To heaven, where grocers there are many more.

On the very large magnificent piece of monumental sculpture which
encloses the remains of Richard Humble, alderman of London, his
two wives, and his children, we read the following lines, forming part
of a poem attributed to Francis Quarles : —

Like to the damask rose you see,
Or like the blossom ou the tree ;
Or like the dainty flower of May,
Or like the morning of the day ;
Or like the sun or like the shade,
Or like the gourd which Jonas had.

Even so is the man, whose thread is spun,

Drawn out, and cut, and so is done.
The rose withers, the blossom blastelh,
The flower fades, the morning hasteth ;
The sun sets, the shadow flies,
The gourd consumes, and Man he dies.

If Glastonbury may be assumed to have been the spot where the
faith of Christ was first expounded to our heathen forefathers, it is
certain that it was at Canterbury that it first exhibited all the
marks of success, and gave promise of becoming in no very distant
period the general religion of the country. There were first heard
the teachings of St. Augustine, who may almost be esteemed the
real founder of Christianity among us, so great were his achieve-
ments in comparison with all that had been done before ; — and
there are yet existing two buildings, or parts of buildings, the walls
of which may have often echoed with the earnest and lofty elo-
quence of the illustrious apostle. One of these is St. Martin's
Church, already noticed (vol. i. p. 58) : he who would visit the
remains of the other, which dispute priority even with St. Martin's
itself, must inquire for the crypt or undercroft of Canterbury
Cathedral. It is a place that would repay any one for a careful and
protracted examination, if the guardians of the sacred edifice had
not chosen to shut it up for some twenty years, and to make it a
hiding-place for lumber and rubbish. Let the indignation of Eng-
land call with a loud voice that this crypt shall cease to be dese-
crated. .Nothing more eminently characteristic of the times of
its erection perhaps exists in the island. The walls are without
ornament, and in that respect contrast strongly with the pillars,
upon which the Saxon architect has expended all his fancy.
When Ethelbert gave Augustine and his companions leave to settle
in the capital of his kingdom, Canterbury, we know, from Bede,
that there was a small church existing in the city, which had been
previously used for Christian worship, and which must have been then
of some age, for Augustine found it necessary to repair and enlarge
it. That was the church which, it is supposed, Augustine raised
to the rank it has ever since maintained of the first English
cathedral, and that is the church of which these rude unorna-
mented walls of the crypt probably yet form an existing me-
morial. For although it was made little better than a ruin by the
Danes in 938, and again, after reparation by Odo, brought to a
similar state by the same people in 1011 ; though Canute's ex-
tensive restorations were also followed by scarcely less extensive
injuries after his decease, and during the early days of the Con-
quest ; and though, lastly, during the Conqueror's reign, Lanfranc
rebuilt the whole almost from the foundation, we still perceive,
during all these repairs and restorations, something like evidence of
parts of the walls and foundations having been left untouched ; no
doubt in consequence of their exceedingly massive and inde-
structible character. These walls, in short, if we read their history
aright, speak to us, in all their simplicity, of a time approaching
within a century or two of the life of the Saviour himself, to whom
they have been so long dedicated, and of builders whose handiwork
can hardly be mistaken for the labour of any other people in what-
ever part of the world found — the Romans, who are supposed to
have built it for the use of their Christian soldiers.

Turning from the plain walls to the curiously-decorated pillars,
we evidently pass over several centuries of architectural history.
A strange mixture of the simple and the rude with the elaborate
and the fantastical do these pillars present, not only in their super-
ficial ornaments, but in their very form ; some are wreathed or
twisted, some round, and no two, either of the shafts, or of the
capitals, are alike (Figs. 557, 558, and 559). A distinguishing
feature of Norman architecture, visible even in its latest and most
beautiful stages, namely, breadth and strength, rather than height
and sliteliness, is here most strikingly developed. The. circum-

ference of the shafts is about four feet, and the entire height o{
plinth, shaft, and capital is only six feet and a half; from these pillars
rise arches of corresponding span, supporting the roof at the altitude
of fourteen feet ; the quaint and stunted, yet massive aspect of the
place, may from this brief description be readily imagined. Tc
determine the date of the later portions with any precision is im
possible ; but there is little question that they belong to a period
anterior to the Conquest.

A building thus surrounded by the holiest and most endearing
associations was, of course, a continual object of improvement ;
scarcely' one of its prelates but seems to have done something in
the way of rebuilding or enlarging ; a fact strikingly attested by
the variety of styles the cathedral now exhibits, even to the least
architecturally instructed eyes. Thus while Lanfranc, the Nor-
man, who succeeded Stigand, the Saxon archbishop, in the see, is
understood to have left the whole essentially finished, we find
Anselm and others of his successors not the less busily at work,
pulling down here, and adding there ; and such labours of love were
not confined to the archbishops, for it seems that Conrad, a prior of
the adjoining monastery, was allowed to participate in them ; who
accordingly improved the choir so greatly that the part was for
some time afterwards known by his name. But a new and more
solemn interest was to invest those walls, than even that derived
from their early history. In the second half of the twelfth century,
Thomas-a-Becket was the archbishop, and a troubled period did
this prelacy become both for the see and England generally. The
struggle for supremacy between the royal and the ecclesiastical
powers was then at its height : and for a time the former appeared
to have triumphed. The beginning of the year 1170 found Becket
the resolute assertor of all the rights and privileges of the church,
in his seventh year of exile : but unshaken, uncompromising as ever.
At last, in July of the same year, the King, Henry the Second,
fearing Becket would obtain from the Pope the power of excommu-
nicating the whole kingdom, agreed to a reconciliation, and the two
potentates met on the Continent ; the king holding Becket's stirrup
as he mounted his horse. The archbishop now prepared for his
return. But many warnings of danger reached him. Among
others, was one to the etfect that Ranulf de Broc, the possessor of
a castle within six miles of Canterbury, who had sworn that he
would not let the archbishop eat a single loaf of bread in England,
was lying in wait, with a body of soldiers, between Canterbury and
Dover. The determined spirit of Becket was revealed in his reply.
Having remarked that seven years of absence were long enough for
both shepherd and flock, he declared he would not stop though he
was sure to be cut to pieces as soon as he landed on the opposite coast.
But if he had powerful enemies among the nobles and chief ecclesi-
astics, he had the great body of the people for his friends. As he
was about to embark, an English vessel arrived ; and the sailors were
asked as to the feelings of the English towards the archbishop ;
they replied that he would be received with transports of joy. He
landed at Sandwich on the 1st of December, and he /vas not disap-
pointed in the welcome he had anticipated from his poorer coun-
trymen. But he had already insured his destruction, by an act of
extraordinary presumption or courage, for it may be called either ;
he had sent before him letters of excommunication, which he had
obtained from the Pope, against his old enemies the Archbishop of
York, and the Bishops of London and Salisbury. These almost
immediately set out for Normandy, to the king, from whom they
implored redress. " There is a man," said they, " who sets England
on fire ; he marches with troops of horse and armed foot, prowling
round the fortresses, and trying to get himself received within them."
This was indeed adding fuel to the fire that already burnt in the king's
breast : " How !" cried he, in a frenzy, " a fellow that hath eaten
my bread, — a beggar that first came to my court on a lame horse,
dares to insult his king and the royal family, and tread upon the
whole kingdom, and not one of the cowards I nourish at my
table — not one will deliver me from this turbulent priest !" These
memorable words fell upon ears already inclined perhaps by private
hatred to listen to them with delight ; such were Reginald Fitzurse,
William Tracy, Hugh de Morville, and Richard Brito, knights,
barons, and servants of the king's household ; who, leaving the
king to determine in council that he would seize Becket and pioceed
against him in clue form of law for high treason, quietly set out foi
England to take the matter into their own hands. Whilst Becket
was marching about in a strange kind of state, with a host of poor
people armed with old targets and rusty lances for his defenders,
the conspirators were gradually drawing towards him by different
routes. On Christmas-day the archbishop was preaching in the
cathedral, with more than his accustomed fervour, his text being
" I come to die among you ;" and one cannot but look with & cer-

Chap. II]

OLD ENGLAND.

i n

151

tain amount of admiration and sympathy on the man, notwithstand-
ing the undoubted violence and ambition of the prelate, when we
see him performing all the last and most questionable acts of eccle-
siastical power, excommunication of personal enemies, with the
clearest anticipation of what might be the personal consequences.
On that day, he told the congregation that one of the archbishops had
been a martyr, and that they would probably soon see another ; and
forthwith blazed out the indomitable spirit as fiercely and as bril-
liantly as ever. " Before I depart home, I will avenge some of the
wrongs my church has suffered during the last seven years ;" and im-
mediately he fulminated sentence of excommunication against Ranulf
and Robert de Broc, and Nigellus, rector of Harrow. Three days
after, the knights met at the castle of that very Ranulf de Broc ;
and finally determined upon their plans. The next morning
they entered Canterbury with a large body of troops, whom they
stationed at different quarters in order to quell any attempt of the
inhabitants to defend the doomed man. They then proceeded to
the monastery of St. Augustine (Fig. 570) with twelve attendants,
and from thence to the palace, where they found the archbishop.
It was then about two o'clock. They seated themselves on the floor,
in silence, and gazed upon him. There was awful meaning in that
glance ; a no less awful apprehension of it, in the look with which
it was returned. For the murderers to do what they had deter-
mined upon, against such a man, and at such a period, was, if
possible, more terrible than for the victim to suffer at their hands.
At last Reginald Fitzurse spoke: "We come," said he, "that
you may absolve the bishops whom you have excommunicated ;
re-establish the bishops whom you have suspended ; and answer for
your own offences against the king." Becket, understanding they
came from Henry, answered boldly and warmly, yet not without
symptoms of a desire to give reasonable satisfaction. He said he
could not absolve the archbishop of York, whose heinous case must
be reserved for the Pope's judgment, but that he would withdraw
the censures from the two other bishops, if they would swear to
submit to the papal decision. They then questioned him upon the
grand point — supremacy : " Do you hold your archbishopric of
the- king or the Pope ?" " I owe the spiritual rights to God
and the Pope, and the temporal rights to the king." After some
altercation, in the course of which Becket reminded three of
them of the time when they were his liege men, and haughtily
said that it was not for such as they to threaten him in his own
house, the knights departed, significantly observing they would
do more than threaten. Whether the hesitation, here apparent,
arose from a desire to try to avoid extremities, or from want of mental
courage to perform the terrible act meditated, may be questioned ;
both influences probably weighed upon their minds. By and by
they returned to the palace, and, finding the gates shut, endeavoured
to force an entrance. Presently Robert de Broc showed them an
easier path through a window. The persons around Becket had
been previously urging him to take refuge in the church, thinking
his assailants would be deterred from violating a place so doubly
sacred — by express privileges, and by its intimate connexion with
the growth of Christianity in the country ; but he resisted until the
voices of the monks, as they sang the vespers in the choir, struck
upon his ears, when he said he would go, as duty then called him.
Calmly he set forth, his cross-bearer preceding him with the
crucifix raised on high, not the slightest trepidation visible in his
features or his movements ; and when the servants would have
closed the doors of the cathedral, he forbade them ; the house of
God was not to be barricadoed like a castle. He was just entering
the choir when Reginald Fitzurse and his companions appeared at
the other end of the church, the former waving his sword and crying
aloud, " Follow me, loyal servants of the king." The assassins were
armed from head to foot. Even then Becket might have escaped,
in the gloom of evening, to the intricate underground parts of the
cathedral ; but he was deaf to all persuasions of the kind, and
advanced to meet the knights. All his company then fled, except
one, the faithful cross-bearer, Edward Gryme. " Where is the
traitor?" was then called out; but as Becket in his unshaken pre-
sence of mind was silent to such an appeal, Reginald Fitzurse added,
"Where is the archbishop?" " Here am I," was the reply; "an
archbishop, but no traitor, ready to suffer in my Saviour's name."
Tracy then pulled him by the sleeve, exclaiming, " Come hither ;
thou art a prisoner!" but Becket perceiving their object, which
was to get him without the church, resisted so violently as to
make Tracy stagger forward. Even then hesitating and uncertain,
hardly knowing what they said, and unable to determine what
they would do, they advised Becket to flee in one breath,
to accompany them in another. It is probable, indeed, that
Becket might have successfully and safely resisted all their

demands, had he condescended to put on for one hour the garb he
ought never to have put off — gentleness ; but his bearing and language
could hardly have been more haughty and contemptuous than now,
when he saw himself utterly defenceless and encompassed by deadly
enemies. Speaking to Fitzurse, he reminded him he had done him
many pleasures, and asked him why he came with armed men into
his church. The answer was a demand to absolve the bishops;
to which Becket not only gave a decided refusal, but insulted
Fitzurse by the use of a foul term that one would hardly have
looked for in the vocabulary of an archbishop. " Then die," ex-
claimed Fitzurse, striking at his head with his weapon ; but the
devoted cross-bearer interfered ; when his arm was nearly cut
through, and Becket slightly injured. Still anxious to avoid the con-
summation of a deed that necessarily appeared so tremendous in
their eyes, one of them was heard even then to utter the warning
voice, " Fly, or thou diest." The archbishop, however clasped his
hands, bowed his head, and, with the blood running down his face ex-
claimed, " To God, to St. Mary, to the holy patrons of this church,
and to St. Denis, I commend my soul, and the church's cause." He
was then struck down by a second blow, and the third completed the
tragedy. One of the murderers placed his foot on the dead pre-
late's neck, and cried " Thus perishes a traitor !" The party then
retired, and after dwelling for a time at Knaresborough, and finding
they were shunned by persons of all classes and conditions, spent
their last days in penitence in Jerusalem : when they died, this
inscription was written upon their tomb — " Here lies the wretches
who murdered St. Thomas of Canterbury." The spot where this
bloody act was performed is still pointed out in the northern wing
of the western transept, and that part of the cathedral is in con-
sequence emphatically called Martyrdom ; the Martyr being the
designation by which Becket was immediately and universally
spoken of. The excitement caused by the event has had few parallels
in English history. For a twelvemonth Divine service was sus-
pended ; the unnatural silence reigning throughout the vast pile
during that time, making the scene of bloodshed all the more im-
pressive to the eyes of the devout, who began to pour thither from
all parts of the world in a constantly-increasing stream. Canterbury
then became a kind of second Holy City, where the guilty sought
remission of their sins — the diseased health — pilgrims, the blessings
that awaited the performance of duly-fulfilled vows. Henry him-
self, moved by a death so sudden and so dreadful, and so directly
following upon his own hasty words, did penance in the most abject
manner before Becket's tomb ; and two years later gave up all
that he had so long struggled for by repealing the famous Con-
stitutions of Clarendon, which had subjected both church and clenry
to the civil authority.

It was a noticeable coincidence that only four years after the death
of Becket the cathedral was all but destroyed by fire ; a calamity
that at such a time would hardly appear like a calamity, from the
opportunity it afforded of developing in a practical shape the
passion that filled the universal heart of England to do something
memorable in honour of the illustrious martyr. To say that funds
poured in from all parts and in all shapes, gives but little notion
of the enthusiasm of the contributors to the restoration of the edifice.
The feelings evidenced by foreigners show forcibly what must have
been those of our own countrymen. In 1179, says Mr. Batteley,
in his additions to Somner's 'Antiquities of Canterbury,' "Louis
VII., King of France, landed at Dover, where our king expected
his arrival. On the 23rd of August these two kings came to
Canterbury, with a great train of nobility of both nations, and
were received by the archbishop and his com-provincials, the prior
and convent, with great honour and unspeakable joy. The obla-
tions of gold and silver made by the French were incredible. The
king [Louis] came in manner and habit of a pilgrim, and was con-
ducted to the tomb of St. Thomas in solemn procession, where he
offered his cup of gold, and a royal precious stone, with a yearly
rental of one hundred muids [hogsheads] of wine for ever to the
convent." The task of rebuilding even a Canterbury Cathedral
would be found but comparatively light under such circumstances ;
so the good work proceeded rapidly towards completion, until the
fabric appeared of which the chief parts remain to the present time.
It is not, therefore, in its associations merely that the cathedral
reminds us at every step we take in it of the turbulent and ambi-
tious, but able and brave priest, — it may really be almost esteemed
his monument; for admiration of his self-sacrifice, veneration of his
piety, and yearning to do him honour, were the moving powers
that raised anew the lofty roof, and extended the long-drawn aisles
and nave and choir. The direct testimonies of the people's affec-
tion were still more remarkable. Among the earliest additions
made after the fire to the former plan was the circular east end.

573. — Early English Capital, Chapter-House
Lincoln.

574.— Lincoln Cathedral.

If*

530.— Early English rurret,
Lincoln.

573. — Norman Capitals, Tower, Lincoln.

5*3. Bracket, Chapter-House, Lincoln.

5*1 —Gable Cross, Lincoln

576 —Lincoln Cathedral

582— Gable Cross. Lincoln.

585 — Bjss, Nave, Lincoln.

584.— Bracket. Lincoln.

57 <, — .luiuior .of Lincoln Cathedral.

152

6t>6.— Norlh-weol View of Durham Cathedral.

[Cii>^/ II' V,

jjo. — i,iuii.*iu Calbeurai,

COO.— Stone Chair in the Chapter-House, Durham.

591.— Arcade, Chapter-House, Durham.

589.— Durham CatVdral.

No. 20c

153

154

OLD ENGLAND.

[Book I.

including the chapel of the Holy Trinity, and another called Becket's
Crown (Fig. 567) ; the last so designated, according to some autho-
rities, from the circumstance of the cliapels having been erected
during the prelacy of Becket, whilst others attribute it to the form
of the roof. There may have been, however, a much more poetical
origin ; Becket's Crown was possibly intended to be significant of the
crown of martyrdom here won by the slaughtered prelate. It was in
that chapel of the Holy Trinity that the shrine, famous the " ide world
over, was erected, and which speedily became so rich as to be without
rival, we should imagine, in Europe. It was " builded," says Stow,
" about a man's height, all of stone, then upwards of timber plain,
within which was a chest of iron, containing the bones of Thomas
Becket, skull and all, with the wound of his death, and the piece cut
out of the skull laid in the same wound. The timber-work of this
shrine on the outside was covered with plates of gold, damasked with
gold wire, which ground of gold was again covered with jewels of
gold, as rings, ten or twelve cramped with gold wire into the said
ground of gold, many of these rings having stones in them, brooches,
images, angels, precious stones, and great pearls." The contents
of the shrine were in accordance with the outward display. Eras-
mus, who obtained a glimpse of the treasures a little before the
Reformation, says that under a coffin of wood, inclosing another
of gold, which was drawn up by ropes and pulleys, he beheld
an amount of riches the value of which he could not estimate.
Gold was the meanest thing visible; the whole place glittered with
the rarest and most precious gems, which were generally of extra-
ordinary size, and some larger than the egg of a goose. When
Henry VIII. seized upon the whole, two great chests were
filled, each requiring six or seven men to move it. In strict
keeping with the character of the brutal despot was his war with
the dead, as well as with the living, when he ordered the remains
of Becket to be burned, and the ashes scattered to the winds. The
shrine, then, has disappeared, with all its contents, but a more
touching memorial than either remains behind — the hollowed pave-
ment— worn away by countless knees of worshippers from every
Christian land.

As our ecclesiastical builders seem to have had not the smallest
notion of " finality " in their labours — but when a building was
even fairly finished, in the ordinary sense of the term, were
sure to find some part requiring re-erection in a new style — we
find Canterbury for centuries after Becket's death still in pro-
gress : the Reformation found the workmen still busy. There is
something in all this truly grand, harmonizing with and ex-
plaining the mighty ends obtained; reason and feeling alike
whisper — Thus alone are Cathedrals built. Yet how deep and per-
vading the influence of art must have been upon the minds of all
who were connected with such structures! Centuries pass, archi-
tect after architect dies off, and is succeeded by others, yet still the
work grows in beauty, and above all in the loftiest, but under the
circumstances apparently the most difficult kind of beauty — expres-
sion ; each man evidently understands his predecessor so thoroughly,
that he can depart from his modes of working — his style, secure
still of achieving his principles. Look at Canterbury. How many
changes of architectural taste are not there visible ; how many dif-
ferent periods of architectural history may not be there traced : yet
is the effect anywhere discordant? — Oh, he were indeed presump-
tuous who should say so ! Is it not rather in the highest degree
grand and impressive, conveying at once to the mind that sense of
sublime repose which belongs only to works of essential unity? We
need not subjoin any detailed architectural descriptions. The Ca-
thedral is pleasantly situated in an extensive court, surrounded by
gardens, cemetery, the deanery and prebendal houses, and what
remains of the archiepiscopal palace, and of other buildings con-
nected with the Cathedral, among which may be mentioned the
Staircase (Fig. 569). The Precinct Gate (Fig. 566) forms the
principal entrance to this court. As to the Cathedral, the double
transepts may be noticed as the most remarkable feature of the plan,
which represents, as usual, a cross. The choir is of extraordinary
length, nearly two hundred feet, and the great tower is generally
esteemed one of the chastest and most beautiful specimens we pos-
sess of Pointed architecture. Its height is two hundred and thirty-
five feet. The entire length of the building measures five hundred
and fourteen feet. One of the two western towers has been re-
cently restored. The Cathedral is exceedingly rich in objects of
general interest to the visitor, and may be readily conceived when
we consider what a history must be that of Canterbury, how many
eminent men have been buried within its walls, what splendid ex-
amples of monumental and other sculpture exist there even yet,
faint tokens of the wealth art once lavished upon its walls and
inches and windows! But among the crowd of interesting objects

there are two which peculiarly attract notice : a sarcophagus of
grey marble, richly adorned, and bearing the effigy )f a warrior in
copper gilt — that is the monument of the Black Prir, :e, wonderfu ly
fresh and perfect; and an ancient chair in the chaj el of the Holv
Trinity, formed also of grey marble, in pieces, whicl is used for the
enthronization of the Archbishops of the See, and which, sayeth
tradition, was the ancient regal seat of the Saxon kings of Kent
who may have given it to the Cathedral as an emblem of their pious

submission to Him who was then first declared unto them the

King of kings (Fig. 567).

If St. Augustine's Monastery pos^essed no other claim to atten-
tion than that of having been the burial-place of the great English
Apostle of Christianity, it were amply sufficient to induce the
visitor to the glorious cathedral to pass on from thence to a space
beyond the walls, along the northern side of the Dover road, and
there muse over the powers that are from time to time <>iven into
the hands of a single man to influence to countless generations the
thoughts, feelings, manners, customs, in a word, the spiritual and
temporal existence of a great people. Yes, it was here that, after
successes that can fall to the lot of few, even of the greatest men,
Augustine reposed in 601 : he found England essentially a heathen
country ; he left it, if not essentially a Christian one, still so far
advanced to a knowledge of the mighty truths of the Gospel, as to
render it all but certain that their final supremacy was a mere
question of time. The monastery was founded by him on ground
granted by Ethelbert, and dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul. It
was Dunstan who some centuries later, *v ><i honourable reverence
for Augustine's memory, re-dedicated the establishment to those
Apostles and to St. Augustine. Not long after that time Augus-
tine's body was removed into the Cathedral. We fear the pious
monks of the monastery must have felt their stock of charity
severely tried on the oeca.-ion, if we may judge from their kn©wn
sentiments towards their brethren of Christ Church, who were thus
honoured at their expense.

There are some curious passages in what we may call the mutual
history of the two establishments. As they both sprang from one
source, Augustine, and were of course founded with the same views,
they looked on each other, as usual, with fetlings that must chanr.
the hearts of those who think it rather creditable than otherwise
to be " good haters." Their disputes began early ; " neither,"
says Lambarde, " do I find that ever they agreed after, but were
evermore at continual brawling between themselves, either suing
before the King or appealing to the Pope, and that for matters of
more stomach [pride] than importance ; as for example whether
the Abbot of St. Augustine's should be consecrated or blessed in
his own church or in the other's; whether he ought to ring his bells
at service before the other had rung theirs ; whether he and his
tenants owed suit to the bishop's court and such like." At the
dissolution Henry VIII. took a fancy to the monastery, and made it
one of his own palaces. Queen Mary subsequently granted it to
Cardinal Pole; but on her death it again reverted to the crown;
and Elizabeth on one occasion, in 1573, kept her court in it. Sub-
sequently Lord Wotton became the possessor, whose widow enter-
tained Charles II., whilst on his way to take possession of the
throne; the note then given to the building may have caused it
to be known as Lady Wotton's Palace, which designation is still
in use.

We may gather from these facts that the monastery in its clays
of prosperity must have been an unusually magnificent structure ;
and, great as have been the injuries since experienced, both in the
shape of actual destruction and in the disgraceful treatment of
what little was still permitted to exist, no one can look upon the
architectural character or extent of the pile, as evidenced in the
remains, without being impressed with the same conviction (Tig.
570). The space covered by the different buildings extended to
sixteen acres. Of these the gateway (Fig. 571), a superb piece of
architecture, is preserved essentially entire.

A Monastery at Bristol, dedicated also to St. Augustine, may be
here fitly noticed. This was built by Robert Fitzharding, the
founder of the present Berkeley family, and a prepositor, or chief
magistrate, of the city during the stormy reign of Stephen. The
establishment afterwards attained to such a pitch of wealth and
splendour, that when Henry VIII. in placing his destructive hands
upon the religious houses of England generally, was moved in.
some way to spare this, he was able to create a bishop's see out of
the abbey lands: the abbey church was consequently elevated to

Chap. I1.J

OLD ENGLAND.

155

ti;e rank it now holds, of a cathedral. As an example of the sum-
mary way in which the king's creatures were accustomed to deal
with such beautiful and revered structures, it is not unworthy of
notice that a part of the church was already demolished, before the